


Radiance

by dreamsquirrel



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Cheating, Drama, Drama & Romance, Explicit Language, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-02-24 03:11:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2566181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamsquirrel/pseuds/dreamsquirrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kageyama scowled, but before he could protest, the redhead was already springing toward the new customer that had already started browsing through the flowers. The raven just stood there for a moment, perplexed by Hinata’s bit of kindness, but he had to be grateful all the same. At least he could use the money he had now to go to something else, right? Still, it didn’t help shake off the strange feeling he had on his shoulders as he left the shop, bouquet in hand.</p>
<p>“So actually smile or something, kay?”</p>
<p>[A KageHina florist AU. Rating/Tags are susceptible to changes as more chapters are added.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flowers and Band-Aids

**Author's Note:**

> Hello friends! So this fic is going to be a long one, I promise you that. Hopefully I'll be able to update this MONTHLY or sooner, since I really want to keep up with this one (hahaha and my roommate will make sure I do it too)! I don't really ship OiKage very hard, but don't worry, this will be mainly a KageHina fic (it just starts off with OiKage). There's gonna be LOTS of drama with this too, so make sure you have some chocolate and blankets, especially in later chapters. This is only just the beginning! 
> 
> Any comments/kudos are greatly appreciated! (And if you spot any errors that I missed, please let me know, kay? It would be a great help to me!)
> 
> Happy Reading! :)

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”

-Carl Jung

* * *

  
  
He couldn't believe this.  
  
He couldn't fucking believe that he, Kageyama Tobio, was actually buying something so cheesy as _flowers_ for his boyfriend on their fifth year anniversary. On any other day, the raven-haired male would have just gone ahead and gave his boyfriend his usual "there's no way in hell I'll do this" face at such a request and forget about it, maybe amuse him with more affection than usual, but the way that Oikawa had been teasing him lately kind of pissed him off.  
  
"If you wanna be romantic, how about you buy me some flowers or something, _Tobio-chan_?"   
  
The question had been laced with all sorts of mockery, each word framed in that derisive grin, and _God_ did he want to know that feeling of shattering it. He wondered what Oikawa’s lips would falter into when the older male would watch him waltz through the door with a bouquet in hand. Of course, Kageyama didn't want to get anything too gaudy since he was sure Oikawa would never let such a corny act go uncommented on, but in the end it was worth the initial shock-factor.  
  
Their relationship had always been like this ever since they had started seeing each other in highschool, maybe even some time before. Kageyama always tried to surpass Oikawa in any way he could, but the brunette would always end up slithering up top. Some nights, the younger male knew that he was just entertaining Oikawa, but then there were the rare few where he would truly sweep him off his feet. And those moments were what drove Kageyama insane.  
  
Kageyama had always loathed Oikawa for the way he pompously carried himself like some sort of ruler, so seeing the Grand King accidentally drop his crown would be worth the raven’s efforts. However, five years ago today, he would have never imagined that this drive to bring down the older male could bring him to such a place as a _flower shop_.

Sucking in a breath, he stepped inside. _I’ll make this quick…_ he thought.

The little store was crammed to the ceiling with flowers and although it was somewhat organized, Kageyama could still feel a wild energy about the room. Colors flurried along the walls in a kaleidoscope of pigments, but to the raven it almost looked like a little kid had gone crazy with a box of crayons except everything was made of buds and blooms. He just wanted to get this _over_ with and get out of here as soon as he could.

"Ah! I didn't see you come in. Welcome!"  
  
Kageyama jumped at a sudden voice from below, his navy-glaring gaze latching onto something that resembled a tangerine cloud. No—wait, that was hair (well, some pretty poofy locks to be more specific). The orange fluff belonged to a boy -or just a really short man, the raven couldn't exactly tell thanks to his childish face- whom he assumed was one of the employees on duty judging from the fact that he was wearing a forest green smock. He might have jumped when they locked eyes, his sunset orbs widening just slightly. Kageyama wouldn’t be surprise, since he had been told many times that his face –whether resting or glaring purposefully- was rather terrifying.  
  
"Is there anything I can help you out with today?" the redhead asked, breaking the weird silence that had ensued between them. _Oh, yeah. The flowers._  
  
"I need flowers," Kageyama answered flatly, stuffing his hands in his pockets.  
  
"Obviously, why else would you be here?" the employee joked, but his face suddenly twisted with regret when he met Kageyama's glare. "A-anyway," he continued as he cleared his throat, "What's the occasion?"  
  
"Anniversary," Kageyama grunted, allowing for the shorter male’s grin to return widely. "I need them for a five year anniversary gift."  
  
"Okay!" he replied briskly, sunset eyes lighting up, "Five years is a pretty long time. I'm kinda jealous, honestly. Does the lucky lady have a favorite kind of flower?"  
  
Kageyama paused to chew on that thought. Of all things that he should have memorized by now, Oikawa having a favorite kind of flower never crossed his mind. He made a motion to grab his phone; he could just text the brunette and ask. _Wait, then what the hell would be the point of surprising him!?_ He thought. Though Oikawa was a narcissistic asshat, the raven couldn’t deny the fact that he was rather smart. "Not that I know of," Kageyama finally answered out loud, allowing his hand to fall to his side.   
  
The employee folded his arms as his face crumbled in disappointment at the answer. Again, Kageyama wasn’t surprised since it was a fact that he probably _should_ have known. Regardless, it didn’t give him a reason to appreciate the expression the redhead gave him. “Just make something, _dumbass_ ,” he grunted, stuffing his hands in his coat pockets again.

“Oi!” the redhead immediately shot back, “That’s pretty rude you kno—!”

 “ _HINATA!_ ” shouted a woman’s voice from the back of the store, her head poking out from one of those doors that read “Employees Only”. Judging by how the redhead’s face turned white, Kageyama guessed that she was the manager or his boss.

“Don’t you dare start picking fights with the customers, again!” she hissed, her brow crumpling. “If you do, you’re gonna get in lots of trouble, do you hear me?”

“Y-Yes ma’am!” the young employee squeaked as he straightened up, and he jolted again when she slammed the door. After a moment of two of heavy silence, the redhead crumpled back into his normal posture, deflating with a sigh. “S…Sorry about that…” he mumbled, then drifted over to the wall of flowers.  
  
Despite the rush of victory over such _rude_ customer service, Kageyama couldn’t help but stare into the redhead’s back as he surveyed the selection, noticing everything about him. His height was the first thing, since that was causing his guestimate of the employee’s age to turn askew. _Were middle-schoolers even allowed to have jobs these days?_ He thought. Maybe he was wrong, but the energy in all of the florist’s movements reminded him of a brat that just didn’t know what the term “still” meant.

It wasn’t like any of this even mattered to Kageyama _anyway_ , since he would probably just forget about the redheaded florist as soon as he left the shop. However, his mind had always been like this, calculating and analyzing every little thing, memorizing and cultivating anything from people to concepts to aim, until he could see something at any angle in any spectrum without missing a single thing.

In a way, Kageyama was an absolute perfectionist.

“…I can’t work with you like that.”

The raven blinked, suddenly focusing on the flower shop around him again. The shorter male was still facing the wall but his head had turned to glance over his thin shoulders to give Kageyama an unnerved look. “You keep glaring at me and it’s making me nervous. I already said that I’m sorry,” he muttered, “Just be patient, sir.”

Kageyama made an annoyed grunt in return, but he turned his gaze elsewhere until the redhead returned to his work. As he plucked some roses and slid them into the wrap, the raven couldn’t help but notice that the employee’s hands were a faint shade of red.

Suddenly, the ginger twirled around with a bouquet in hand, bee-lining his way back to Kageyama and thrusting it out to him so that he could evaluate. It was the classic roses and baby’s breath arrangement, one dedicated to a pure romantic message, but there were five of the red blooms in it. The one that had been called “Hinata” leaned up and forward almost eagerly, like a puppy waiting to be praised.

“Isn’t there supposed to be a dozen in a bouquet of roses?” Kageyama asked flatly, causing the redhead to wilt.

“I only put in five to represent that you’ve been together with this girl for five years… there’s a lot more to flowers than just what they look like,” he responded, “I learned that the hard way, unfortunately.” He laughed to himself, scratching the back of his head to try and break the intimidating air, yet the raven didn’t seem to be fazed. Instead, he just glanced over to the side and let out a short groan.

“Whatever, it’s not like it matters, anyway.”

The room fell into silence again, Kageyama keeping his gaze on an autumn arrangement, and Hinata didn’t seem to move either. He could feel the other’s sunset eyes on him, but Kageyama refused to elaborate on it. All he could think about was just how fast he could get out of here already.

When the tapping of shoes on the tile resonated in his ears, navy eyes flickered up to see that the redhead had gone to the front counter to wrap a ribbon around the base of the bouquet and making sure it was secured. Kageyama’s fingers were already thumbing through his wallet as he made his way over, pulling out a few bills to pay. However, when the raven started to hand the employee the money, the shorter male just waved his hand.

“No, I’ll cover it,” he explained as he held out the wrapped-up bouquet to him, flashing him a bright grin, “I can tell it’s something really special to you, right?”

“I guess it is,” Kageyama answered, his voice falling quiet at first from the shock. However, after furrowing a brow, he added –volume returning to normal, or even louder- “What the hell are you doing that for?!”

The employee clenched his teeth, trying to keep his grin but it was obvious that he was annoyed for Kageyama’s apparent lack of gratitude. “Just accept it, okay?” he grumbled through his gritted teeth, thrusting the bouquet in front of the raven. Reluctantly, he took the damned flowers in his hands before glaring back up at this guy. He was more confused than angry, since why would this Hinata kid want to pay for someone else’s flowers? He was pretty pissed off, given by the way the corner of his lip threatened to twitch down and break that stupid-glowing grin of his. However, by the way those burnt umber eyes burned, Kageyama didn’t think that there’d be a way for the redhead to accept his money.

_Goddamned middle-schoolers,_ Kageyama mentally grumbled as the redhead pulled out his own wallet from his pocket, sticking his own money into the cash register. As with the ring of the front door bell, another customer entered the shop, causing the redhead to perk up immediately. “Welcome to our shop!” he greeted as he peered around the raven, but the newcomer just waved him off. With a defeated sigh, the redhead returned his attention to Kageyama again.

“You’re gonna make this girl really happy, right?” the florist asked, “You can’t do that if you look so pissed off all the time. So try and actually smile or something, kay?”

Kageyama scowled, but before he could protest, the redhead was already springing toward the new customer that had already started browsing through the flowers. The raven just stood there for a moment, perplexed by Hinata’s bit of kindness, but he had to be grateful all the same. At least he could use the money he had now to go to something else, right? Still, it didn’t help shake off the strange feeling he had on his shoulders as he left the shop, bouquet in hand.

_“So actually smile or something, kay?”_

What the hell was that supposed to mean?! Kageyama did smile; it was a seriously rare occurrence, but it still happened every now and then, didn’t it? _Don’t talk about me like you know me, you dumbass,_ is what the taller male would have said, but that was pointless to think about so much now. It wasn’t like he was actually ever going to see that weirdo again anyway.

Still, on his way to the train station, he couldn’t help but hear that idiot redhead’s “advice” echo in his head. He didn’t think he would be able to smile when he walked in the door, since showing something so _happy_ wasn’t really his forte.

Sure, his mind could go on for millions of years calculating and recalculating others, trying to understand them and interact with them. Unfortunately his body wasn’t one to listen. He was always the type to act rather on instinct than thought, so he couldn’t make himself smile. On the train ride to he and Oikawa’s apartment, the raven could think about hundreds of different scenarios for how the night would go, but none of them ever really included him _smiling._

By the time he reached their apartment, Kageyama’s stomach started churning into knots. Fuck, the nerves were sinking in fast like a beast’s merciless teeth, and he could feel a little drop of sweat beading down the back of his neck. What was his problem? It was just _Oikawa_ , the idiot that he’d been dating for five years. There was no way that he’d _dislike_ the flowers, would he?

The raven clutched the stems in his palm when he stood face to face with their front door, and he could feel the roses pressing into the plastic that crumpled in his hand. Over the crinkling he could hear noises from inside. _Just open the damned door already,_ he chided himself in his head, _It’ll be fine._ He could see it now, Oikawa just relaxing in front of the television, or listening to it as he made tonight’s dinner. He was going to be doing something normal, just like any other day. _It’ll be fine_ , he repeated in his mind, mouthing out the words to himself before turning the doorknob and peering inside.

However, no matter how many situations Kageyama could think of, none of them could have prepared him for what he actually saw that night. 

 

* * *

 

“ _Ugh_ ,” Hinata groaned out loud, “My back _hurts_.”

The redhead had his bag slung over his shoulder, his work clothes stuffed into his bag along with a worn-out volleyball, and he could feel its curvature through the black bag too as he made his way onto the train. It was pretty late, so he probably missed dinner with his roommates. The thought of missing _nabe_ night made his stomach want to sob –and him, too! Kenma’s cooking was always good, even though he didn’t seem like the type who could cook very well.

His mouth was watering at the thought of his roommate’s cooking, but his heart was hurting too, since he knew that it was probably all cold by now, and Kenma’s food deserved to be eaten hot and fresh! The redhead squeezed through the train, holding on tight to one of the hanging straps when it began to move forward. Usually he would pop both his earbuds in and just bob his head to the beat of his own little world, but one of them had shorted out that morning before. The end result was a mix between some Old Codex tracks and the murmur of the night-time commuters on the train. However, this allowed him to actually pay attention to some of the people around him, and he couldn’t help but notice one guy sitting by himself along the side of the car.

His arms were folded, his raven head lowered down either at his hands in his lap or at the ground around his feet. Hinata assumed the former, since he could see that the man’s right hand was dotted with crimson.

“O-Oi!” Hinata suddenly spoke up, his eyebrows jumping almost to his hairline. He wriggled his way around some other stranger so that he could stand before the injured person, already digging into the side-pocket of his bag to pull out a few Band-Aids. “You’re hurt, aren’t you? Do you need some bandages?” he asked.

“Don’t bother me.”

The growl made the redhead freeze up, his eyes widening like volleyballs. _I know that voice…!_ “I-It’s the scary guy that came into work!” he squeaked out loud, immediately covering his mouth at the outburst.

_Shit!_

The man raised his head slowly, his navy blue eyes dangerously cold. No amount of light blaring from the fluorescent lights overhead could even begin to relieve this guy from the darkness in his expression. Everything about him seemed grim and ominous, and the redhead could even feel the front half of his body grow colder just from f _acing_ him.

“Shut. Up. And. _Leave_ ,” the man replied, each word dripping with acid. Messing with this guy probably wasn’t a good idea.

With a little mumbled, “Sorry…” the redhead took a step back for his own sake, ready to press his working earbud back into his ear, but a sudden thought stopped him. _Oh yeah! Band-Aids!_ He thought, taking out the little bandages from this bag and handing them out to him. “You’re bleeding. You should at least—“

“Didn’t you hear what I said, _dumbass_?!” the man snapped at him, causing Hinata to jolt. “I just said to leave me the fuck _alone!_ ”

The redhead stood there in silence, just watching him. Past the dark and scary, “don’t-fuck-with-me” aura, there was something else in this man’s disposition that piqued something of Hinata’s interest. For some reason, he just couldn’t leave him there like this, since… well, he looked honestly more _sad_ than anything else. What did he get his flowers for again? It was something pretty important… He couldn’t quite remember then, but that didn’t stop him from laying out a bandage in the raven’s open palm. “You should at least take one of these,” he insisted, “Or else your hand is gonna get all sorts of infected.”

“What are you--!?” the man started, but then it seemed like the words caught in his throat. He gnashed his teeth together before lowering his head to watch his palms again, gripping tightly onto the little paper wrapping of the Band-Aid. He let out a defeated groan, shoulders sagging before he ripped the paper open and pulled out the little tan bandage. “If this will get you to shut up, then fine.”

“Ah!” Hinata suddenly cut in, snapping his fingers, “I remember now. You bought some flowers for your girlfriend, right?”

The stranger was in the midst of wrapping the bandage around the bottom of his index finger when he froze again, tensing at the word “girlfriend” specifically. He pressed the sticky end of the bandage onto his finger after a few moments of stiffness, unable to meet the redhead’s eager gaze. “How did that go?”

“Bad,” that’s all the raven gave him.

“It’s not because I didn’t add a dozen flowers like you said, was it?!” Hinata blurted out worriedly, “I-I didn’t mean to ruin—“

“Save it, idiot,” the raven cut in, smoothing out the Band-Aid, “It had nothing to do with that.”

As the train made its stops, the car they were in slowly began to clear out, allowing for there to be more room to move around. Hinata took the opportunity to plop down next to the raven, pulling out more bandages for him to wrap around his bleeding fingers. “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?” he spoke up, but he didn’t receive any sort of answer from the male next to him.

He didn’t want to talk about it, obviously.

“What’s your name?” Hinata asked, trying his best to change the subject, “Mine’s Hinata, Hinata Shouyou.” At first, the raven _still_ didn’t answer him, but after a few moments of the quiet murmuring of the car patrons around them, Hinata could hear him finally speak up.

“Kageyama Tobio,” he muttered, slipping on another one of the redhead’s bandages around his fingers. Wow, he really had all sorts of little cuts on the inside of his hand, like he played a game of patty-cake with broken bits of glass or something. Hinata eyed the small injuries until they were sealed away by the bandages, before glancing up at the raven again. “Do your hands hurt?” he asked, his brow crumpling in concern.

“Not really,” Kageyama muttered back. His mouth opened as if he was going to say something else, but a small beeping noise from below filled the space where the raven’s words were going to be. Clicking his tongue, he reached into his pocket and flipped open his phone to scowl at the text message awaiting for him.

The one thing Hinata noticed about the guy’s phone was the volleyball phone charm that dangled off of it, causing the redhead to light up instantly. “Uwah!” Hinata gasped excitedly, “I like your phone charm! Do you like volleyball?”

“Of course,” Kageyama grumbled as he practically smashed his phone back into his pocket, fuming at whatever the message said, “Why the fuck would I have a phone charm of something I hated?”

The redhead fell silent for a few moments, lips pursing in thought. What were the train routes again, and how long did they stay running for? Hinata wasn’t sure, but maybe he could cheer this guy up some. “Are you doing anything important right now?” he asked, reaching into his bag.

Kageyama hesitated before shaking his head, muttering something like, “I don’t even know _what_ I’m doing,” under his breath. His navy gaze flickered up at the sound of Hinata’s bag unzipping, his eyebrow quirking up at the sight of the old volleyball in the redhead’s hands.  “We could go play for a little bit if you want,” he offered, “You know, to take your mind off stuff.”

“Why the hell--?!” Kageyama started, but he was cut off by another beep from his phone, followed by two or three more. With a groan, he fished out his phone again, scrolling through the flurry of messages that blew up his phone, and with a growl-like sound, he just shut the damned thing off. “Tch… Fine. Not like I wanna go home, anyway,” he hissed.

“Was it that bad?” Hinata asked.

Kageyama only gave him a nod before the train stopped again. At that moment, the redhead hooked the ball under one arm and grabbed onto Kageyama’s arm with the other, tugging him up and out of the seat. “Then come on, let’s go!” He urged with a large grin, making the raven let out an annoyed noise. Regardless, he still allowed for Hinata to drag him off the train, since…

... well, he just didn’t know anymore.

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Fingertips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If this had taken place on any other day, Kageyama surely would have called Hinata some crazy punk kid and ran off, but yet... had his heart been so broken that all rationality faded away from him? He couldn't understand this person at all, and he wasn't sure whether or not he even wanted to, yet he kept going anyway. He kept running. He kept playing.
> 
> And the stranger just ran and played with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! Oh golly, I didn't expect so many kudos and bookmarks and comments and just wow it's an incredible feeling! So thank you for everything, since it motivates me to write even more. Everything you guys do is greatly appreciated, so just thank you friends. uwu I'm sorry if this thing is starting out a little slow, but that's just sort of my style, I suppose. I promise that each chapter will only get better and better (and maybe even longer and longer too?). Any feedback is super appreciated and loved!
> 
> Happy Reading :)

“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”

—Bob Kerrey

* * *

 

As soon as the train stopped, Hinata’s fingers wrapped around Kageyama’s forearm and tugged, dragging the raven out of the train car. Kageyama was ready for a nice walk through the autumn night air, but it seemed like the redhead wasn’t thinking about that at all. In fact, Hinata’s pull on him harshened, and they dashed out of the station in a full-on sprint.

“Hey, what the hell are we running for?!” Kageyama hissed out from behind him, stumbling once or twice as to try and not hit any of the other late-night passersby. Damn, this kid was fast!

Hinata’s tangerine head tilted around so that he could catch the sight of the raven for a moment, a wide grin on his lips. “It’s more fun this way, isn’t it?” he called, breaths breaking between his words. It might have been the lighting of the streetlamps, but Hinata almost looked exhausted. Yet, somehow those sunset orbs were still burning bright with energy.

“Then at least let go of me so I can run faster!”

Kageyama ripped his arm out of the redhead’s hold, earning a look of slight dismay. However that beaming expression of his returned as soon as the raven was darting up to his side, and his eyes narrowed in determination when Kageyama dashed past him.

“Slow down!” Hinata called, though the words didn’t sound too convincing. In fact, his laugh after just drove Kageyama to want to up his pace. “You don’t even know where we’re going!”

Ignoring him, the young setter just darted on forward. He couldn’t understand it, why his feet were carrying him so far, into some part of town that he wasn’t even that familiar with. There was this odd drive in the pit of his stomach, just to be able to outrun this punk. What was it about him that gave him such a competitive edge? Maybe it was a post-incident kind of feeling—no, Kageyama wasn’t going to think about that anymore. If he did, he knew his head was surely going to explode.

“Kageyama, over here!”

Hinata’s voice broke through Kageyama’s train of thought, and it sounded far away behind him. Had he turned or something without him noticing? Navy orbs glanced back over his shoulder and he stopped, seeing as he actually _did_ leave Hinata in the dust. Well, more like Kageyama had passed the finish line before realizing that he had even approached it. With a short sigh, the raven turned on his heel and jogged back to where Hinata stood underneath one of the street lights, his volleyball tucked beneath his arm above his bag. Using his thumb, the redhead pointed to his right at the entrance to the city park. “We can play volleyball here, if you want,” he suggested, his shoulders rising and falling quickly with his panting, “There’s no one around this late at night, so you don’t have to worry about hitting anyone.” The grin that followed was a cheeky one, causing annoyance to pull down on Kageyama’s lips.

“The only one I’ll be hitting is _you_ if you keep that up, dumbass,” he grumbled, causing Hinata to shiver. Well, at least he was intimidating, still. Regardless, it didn’t stop the ginger from leading him inside the park.

They found a spot that was decently lit; it was an open area with a cobblestone pathway cutting through the middle of it. The path was lined with bright lamps, so the area right beside it was lit enough so that they could see. Even then, the light of the moon was bright enough to help too. Cool wind brushed the back of Kageyama’s neck causing him to shiver. Autumn was already here, so it would be winter soon.

“You know, I don’t usually come out to play this time at night since it’s kinda cold,” Hinata commented before serving the ball. “But after running like that, it feels nice, right?”  It wasn’t the most accurate of serves, since Kageyama had to shift himself to the left a foot or two, but at least the ball got to him. Using the insides of his forearms, the setter knocked it back to Hinata, his eyes locked on the ball.

“Sure,” Kageyama mumbled, his focus not allowing for anything else.

“And I usually don’t have anyone to play with either, so this is fun,” Hinata added on before making a strained noise as he received the ball.

A sort of silence fell down over them as the ball volleyed back and forth between them, the only sounds being that of the night air and the slapping of the ball against their arms. In a way, it was like a slap in the face of the awkward reality that they were complete strangers. They didn’t know anything about each other, so it wasn’t like conversation was going to be something easy for them. The only thing that Kageyama really knew about Hinata was that he was a florist that liked volleyball. And he was kind of good at it, since he hadn’t dropped it yet. But that was besides the point—what the hell was Kageyama doing out in the middle of the night with some _kid_ that he didn’t even know? Was this some kind of pedophilia or something?

“You probably shouldn’t be out this late you know,” Kageyama brought up, smacking the ball with his arms, “You probably have to go to school in the morning, don’t you?”

Hinata’s brow jumped up in a fit of confusion, glancing down at Kageyama before locking eyes with the ball again. He stepped back a few feet, since this pass had been kind of high. “What do you mean?”

“You’re a middle-schooler, right?”

That tangerine head snapped back down to watch Kageyama, and for a moment he thought that Hinata’s curls were actually bristling like some sort of cat. “That’s not—ugh!” the florist started to protest, but the volleyball knocked him in the forehead instead. With a loud whine, the redhead’s fingers flew up to his hair, tangling in it as his palms pressed against his somewhat throbbing injury. “You’re so awful sometimes, you know? Mind you, I’m 22 and nowhere near being in school anymore!” he groaned, causing Kageyama to freeze.

“What the hell?” He gasped, “You’re _older_ than me?!”

“You’re younger than me?” Hinata countered in shock, but it quickly swelled up into a sense of pride. “Heh, guess you’re really surprised now, huh? How old are you, _kouhai_?” He teased, his grin turning smug.

At that, Kageyama marched right up to the florist, nabbing his tangerine curls in an unkind manner. “Ach-ack-augh!” the redhead cried, smacking at Kageyama’s hand with his palms, “A-Alright, that’s enough! Let go!” Reluctantly, the raven released the older male, causing him to stumble back and grip onto his own head. The setter watched the display, annoyed –and possibly amused- by Hinata’s animated nature. “Still, how old are you?” Hinata asked as he recovered.

“21. 22 in December.”

“Eh—really?” the redhead breathed in disbelief, “I thought you were much older than that. Like maybe in your later twenties. Oi, don’t give me that look! I’m not calling you old!” He quickly sputtered out the last bit, responding to Kageyama’s warning glare. “I’m just a little surprised is all!”

_That’s not helping your case, you idiot,_ Kageyama thought, but the words didn’t feel like coming out at that moment. Instead, he picked up the ball and jogged back to his original spot before serving the ball again. At least he didn’t feel as creepy this time around, since Hinata was around his age. Still, he was more or less shocked at how short he was as an adult.

Wasn’t this odd, though?

_Why do I feel like I’ve done this before?_

A sense of deja-vu washed over him as they passed the ball back and forth, like he was playing with someone he knew. It was strange, since he knew he had never met Hinata a day in his life, yet the atmosphere was starting to grow some familiarity around its edges; however the strangest part about this all was the fact that for a moment… he had actually forgotten about what had happened that afternoon.

_“Ah. Tobio-chan, you’re home early!”_

Oikawa’s carefree voice jingled through his head, and he grimaced, smacking the ball a little too hard for his liking. The loud pang of the ball stinging his arms woke him up from his train of thought, and he glanced up, ready to scold Hinata for not being fast enough. No one ever was, not with the strength of his hits.

However, the words caught in his throat as his eyes met the redhead’s figure.

One second he was there, then in the next it was almost as if he had vanished. If time had slowed down, Hinata would be darting off at a normal pace, twisting his body to leap for the ball. He seemed to have ran fast enough so that he wouldn’t have to jump too high, but he still made a dive into the air. A small hand reached up, fingertips extending as far as they could reach. The base of the volleyball _barely_ tipped over Hinata’s fingers, but the fact that he could get there put Kageyama at a loss for words.

For a moment, the redhead had appeared to be gliding across the grass, and those navy new moons of Kageyama’s widened as he watched Hinata tumble to the ground. It was a nice save—no, it was an _incredible_ one. Even as time began to turn again, the setter couldn’t get that short moment out of his mind, hell it even blocked _the incident_ out of his head completely for a few moments.

_How the hell could he do that?_

The ball entering his vision again almost startled him, and he stepped back to catch it in his palms. He didn’t want to play anymore, he just wanted to know what the hell this kid _was_! Cradling the ball under his arm, Kageyama dashed forward to meet up with the redhead and just gawked at him. “What the fuck was that?”

“What was what?” Hinata responded inquisitively as he rose to his feet, brushing off his pants before looking up at the other.

“You just _zipped_ by, like this,” Kageyama explained, swiftly cutting his hand to the right. The redhead didn’t seem to get it at first, like what he did was something that was usual. However, it suddenly clicked to Hinata when he let out a short, “Ah.”

“I used to play a long time ago in highschool,” Hinata continued with a cheeky curl of his lips, “I still have some of my moves, but I don’t use them as much anymore.” For a moment, Kageyama thought that a shadow had crossed over the redhead’s sunset eyes, but it vanished in an instant.

“It’s getting late, isn’t it? How long have we been out here?” Hinata suddenly brought up, tilting his head to gaze at the night sky. The moon was as high as it was full, causing the redhead to suck in a breath. “Oops. Guess I kept you out way too late, huh?” he chuckled embarrassedly, scratching the back of his ginger head.

“Well, it’s your fault,” Kageyama muttered.

“I know that!” Hinata immediately retorted before letting out a sigh, “We should probably both head back to our homes, right? I can walk you back to the train station if you want—“

“I’m not going back there,” Kageyama grumbled, eyes drifting back down to the ground. “No way.”

Hinata fell silent again, so all Kageyama could hear was the sound of the crickets chirping their night song. He didn’t want to go back to that place, back to that room. Oikawa would be there, and there was no way in hell that he would want to see his face ever again, not after what he had done. But there wasn’t really anywhere else to go, was there? Kageyama and Oikawa had been living together for a while now, so all of his belongings were in that place. Maybe he could just burn everything he owned, buy an entire new wardrobe or something, since that bastard’s sweet scent would be everywh—

“Just when you looked like you were enjoying yourself, you had to make such a scary face…”

Hinata’s voiced thought didn’t go unnoticed. In fact, the little remark earned him an angry glare from the raven, and the florist immediately waved his hands.

“C-Calm down! Jeeze!” he stammered before lowering his hands, “If you don’t wanna go back, you could crash at my place?”

“…the fuck?” Kageyama answered, an eyebrow raised suspiciously.

“Don’t take it in any sort of weird way!” Hinata protested, “I guess you and your girlfriend had a bad fight or something, right? And my house isn’t very far. You’d definitely be sleeping on the couch, too, since Kenma and Kuroo have their room already. You don’t have to, you probably have somewhere else to go or something.”

Kageyama stood there quietly, trying to process this in his mind. A complete stranger had offered his home to him –well, more like his couch, but it was at least somewhere to go. He didn’t know Hinata at all, and Hinata didn’t know him either, so how the hell could he ask something like that? _I don’t understand you at all_ , he thought, eyeing him oddly.

“…I don’t,” Kageyama replied, “But it’s just weird. Why the hell are you doing this? Any of this, really… what’s the point of helping out someone you don’t even know?” Hinata pursed his lips for a second, tilting his head from side to side, thinking hard about the answer. His curls bounced with every move of his head, and Kageyama just locked his eyes on him. Sure, he was older, but he really did look like he was younger than him.

“I feel like it’s the right thing to do, I guess,” Hinata finally answered, “The world can be bad enough for some people sometimes, so what’s the point of trying to make it worse?” A shrug from him followed suit, leaving Kageyama in a confused state. _So what is this, pity?_ The raven opened his mouth to protest, but Hinata waltzed over to pluck the ball from his hands and kept walking past him, up and onto the path. “Does it really matter anyway? If you’re coming, then come on.”

“Huh? Wait—of course it matters!” Kageyama called out, but his feet moved to follow the redhead anyway. As the two began to walk through the park together, he continued on with his bewildered thought. “I could be some sort of serial killer or something for all you kow.”

“I could be too, but you’re still walking with me,” Hinata retorted, sticking his tongue out at the setter who almost instantaneously rewarded him with a hair-nab.

_This kid is really weird,_ Kageyama thought as they walked together, unable to process what was happening quite right. Or, maybe he was but he was just denying to believe in it? Well, either way, he’d be far away from that asshole…

 

* * *

 

“I’m back!” Hinata called out.

“Sorry for the intrusion,” Kageyama mumbled.

Hinata’s apartment was small –or at least that’s how it appeared when Kageyama stepped inside. However, as he slipped off his shoes, he understood that it wasn’t that small in size, but it was just full, like Hinata was really making the most of the place. Photos of Hinata with other people that Kageyama didn’t recognize lined the walls of the little hall that they entered in, along with some posters here and there. Some were famous volleyball posters, and a couple others looked like video-game posters. It was odd; Kageyama would have never considered Hinata as a gamer. He seemed way too… athletic. Active? That was a better word for it.

Hinata hovered down the hall and peered around the corner to his right, just before the living room to peer into what Kageyama guessed to be the kitchen. He could hear the water running, so maybe there was someone in there? “Ah, Kenma, I didn’t realize that you were still up. Are you making anything?”

“Um… I’m washing the dishes, Shouyou,” mumbled a softspoken voice. It must have been his roommate, whom of which was possibly in charge of the cooking? Either way, at the answer, Hinata crumbled against the wall, disappointment clearly scribbled across his features. “Aw, man! I missed dinner again, didn’t I? I’ll heat up some of the leftovers later, I guess.” Suddenly, Hinata’s figure straightened up almost excitedly as he leaned back, waving his hand for Kageyama to come over.

“Hey, hey, I brought someone over, if you don’t mind? He won’t be staying too long, but he doesn’t have anywhere else to go,” Hinata began as Kageyama moved over to stand behind him. He was at least a whole head taller than the ginger, so it wasn’t like Kageyama was hiding. “Kageyama, this is my roommate Kenma!” Hinata introduced, “And Kenma, this is Kageyama.”

Standing over a pile of dishes was a man with brunette hair, but his tips were a golden blonde kind of color. It almost resembled pudding, in a way –or maybe that was Kageyama’s stomach talking? He hadn’t eaten anything since before he went to the flower shop… Despite that, the next thing he noticed about this Kenma person was that his eyes were almost cat-like in the way that they were sharp.

“I’m Kozume Kenma,” the pudding-haired male spoke up with a polite bow of his head, “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Kageyama Tobio,” the raven replied, “Sorry for the intrusion.”

“It’s not a problem,” Kenma answered him, returning to his work to scrub the dirty dishes clean. This person was so strange, a much calmer kind of disposition than Hinata’s. Wouldn’t the redhead be much too loud for him? He was amazed that they were able to live together at all. Suddenly, another voice broke into the air, coming from the living room.

“Hm? What’s this about a new guy?”

Kageyama turned to the approaching footsteps to catch the sight of another character standing behind them both. He was a pretty tall guy, with a slender but strong physique. His eyes were sharp, and his midnight hair stuck up in weird directions, but only on half of his head. It was like he had slept on that side of his head for way too long, so now his hair was constantly stuck there. “If we’re still doing introductions, I think the shorty forgot to mention me. I’m Kuroo Tetsuro,” he said with a smirk, eyes flickering down to Hinata whom had shot right around at the nickname.

The redhead pushed past Kageyama to march right up to the tallest of the three, pouting and poking at his chest. “I told you to stop calling me that! I’m not that short!”

“Okay, how about Shorty-kun?” Kuroo teased.

“No!”

“Midget-san?”

“Kuroo, I swear to God—“

“Ah, I got it,” Kuroo gasped, snapping his fingers, “Chibi-chan!”

With an annoyed growl, Hinata punched his shoulder, earning a light-hearted laugh from Kuroo. “I’m not that short! I told you this so many times already, so _stop_ that!”

“What, you don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of your new boyfriend?” the bedheaded male asked, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. Hinata immediately slammed a fist on his chest with a loud groan of annoyance. “ _NO WAY!_ ” he roared, cheeks flaming at the weird comment, “He’s just a friend and he needs somewhere to go for a night or two, okay? Sheesh.”

“I get it, I get it,” Kuroo sighed, waving his hand from side to side without dropping that smirk of his. His gaze then fixed on Kageyama as he added, “Alright, well come in. You can take the couch if you want to. Aren’t I so kind?”

“The three of you are very noisy,” Kenma’s voice rung out from the kitchen, causing Kageyama’s eye to twitch. Why was he lumped up with those two? He shook his head as he followed Kuroo and Hinata out into the living room. Again, the room had a feeling of being so small, but at the same time it wasn’t. It was just full of something; yes, there was proper furniture and decorations along the walls but there was something else about it. Whatever it was, it was much different than living with Oikawa that was for sure.

Kuroo and Hinata then gave Kageyama a “grand tour” of the apartment, though it wasn’t really much. In fact, all they really did was point in different directions to where the bathroom and their bedrooms were and whatnot. Either way, the young setter still gave them both a confirmative nod before Kuroo wandered off to find Kageyama some pillows and blankets. When the tallest of the three was gone, Kageyama found himself turning toward Hinata and he muttered something under his breath, looking down at the floor.

“What was that?” Hinata asked, leaning forward to try and hear him better.

“…thanks for letting me in,” Kageyama repeated, louder this time around. Guilt sunk down like a rock in his stomach because of his intrusion, but it didn’t seem like Hinata minded at all. In fact, he just laughed and patted Kageyama’s shoulder once or twice. “It’s not any trouble,” he assured the raven, “Really, it’s not. So feel free to make yourself at home, okay? I’ll heat up some dinner, and Kuroo can start a bath for you.” With that, the ginger turned back toward the kitchen, leaving Kageyama standing alone in the living room.

This was weird.

This whole day had been incredibly _weird_ , like he was in some sort of strange dream or something. It started out as an awful nightmare, but then it just sort of evened out as the night went on, maybe? He pinched his elbow roughly, trying to wake himself from this bizarre dream, but when he opened his eyes, the world around him had refused to change.

Well, it wasn’t like he had anywhere to go anyway. He wasn’t the type to have a whole lot of friends, and he didn’t want to have to rely on anyone to do something like this for him either. Yet, did that justify having three strangers allow him in their home? That guilty feeling never vanished from him; it only swelled and caused his appetite to shrink.  

He just wanted to go _home_ , to curl up in his bed with Oikawa’s arms wrapped around him again. He wanted that stupid scent of his, run his fingers through that damned wavy hair, hell, even listen to his fucking heartbeat again. But… it didn’t seem like his boyfriend felt that way anymore. Oikawa agitated him to no end on a daily basis, doing things that were so damn annoying that Kageyama wanted to rip his hair out, but he missed it. He missed having that feeling of being spurred on; he was so used to having his hair rubbed the wrong way that when it wasn’t, he didn’t know what to do.

He wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to say this out loud, but he had fallen for Oikawa incredibly _hard_.

Kageyama skipped out on dinner, his appetite completely gone despite how good the leftover _nabe_ smelled, and his bath was a fast one as well. Firstly, he didn’t want to use up all their hot water, since Hinata was going to take a bath too, but he honestly just wanted to sleep. Truthfully he was exhausted, both mentally and physically too. He was even surprised at the fact that Hinata was actually able to get him to play volleyball. How could he have forgotten everything about the afternoon before so easily?

As Hinata was finishing up his bath, Kuroo and Kenma headed off to bed, making sure to set up the couch for Kageyama before they fell asleep. Borrowing a set of Kuroo’s clothes for the night, Kageyama sat himself down on the couch and pulled the blanket up over his lap. He was about to fall down into the couch and lie there, but Hinata’s voice rung out in his ears.

“So… do you want me to take you back tomorrow?” Hinata offered as he peered around the couch, but he sounded cautious about it, “I don’t really know about these kinda situations, and I don’t even know what happened but you should probably talk to her about it.”

“Hn,” Kageyama huffed in his throat as he laid down on his side. Hinata crouched down on the floor to keep eye-level with him, holding onto the towel he had hanging from his neck in one hand and balancing himself on the couch with the other. He certainly looked comfortable in his t-shirt and sweatpants, but his hair as still wet. Still could he look so bright with nothing but the light from down the hall on? Kageyama clicked his tongue and flipped over so his back was to the redhead.

“It certainly would help, wouldn’t it?” Hinata asked, “Maybe you guys could make up or something. I’ll go with you tomorrow after work if you want? And if you don’t make up, you’ll at least have to get your stuff anyway. Just get some sleep, okay?”

Kageyama tugged the blanket up over his shoulders, holding onto it tight and keeping silent. He didn’t want to talk anymore, he just wanted to sleep. However, Hinata’s presence stuck around there for a few moments, despite the cold air that the raven was giving off. Soon enough, Kageyama heard a quiet exhale, and he could feel Hinata’s hand moving off the couch. “Well, goodnight then. We’ll just play it by ear or something.”

As the raven’s eyelids slipped shut, the sound of soft footsteps padded down the hallway, and the light shut off with a short snap, leaving the young setter alone in the dark.

_Just sleep._

_I don’t want to remember anymore._


	3. Temporary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Internally, he grimaced when he looked down to see over fifty shades of colorful shapes floating around in the milk. He wasn’t much of a sugar fan, but he wasn’t going to shoot down another meal from these people, especially without Hinata there. It was as if he was lost in some strange country and the redhead was his translator or something.
> 
> Wait, since when did he start thinking he was actually close to this stranger?
> 
> It’s only temporary… Just ignore it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My original intention was to split this chapter into two parts, but I think I'm just going to have them as two separate chapters. It's finals week at my university, so I probably should be studying, but instead I'm getting myself balls-deep into these dorks. (And I'm trying to escape writing out Oikawa as much as possible because his character scares me please kill me) The next chapter is coming soon, don't worry! And hopefully I'll have much more time to write since Christmas break starts soon! 
> 
> And thank you so much for all the kudos and comments and just wow it's incredibly motivating to know that there are people who like my work!! Thank you very much!!! <3
> 
> Happy Reading!

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”

-C.S. Lewis

* * *

 

Today was an oddly busy day in the flower shop; Hinata could barely stop for a moment to take a breather. Since when did this little store get so popular? _Is everyone having some sort of anniversary or something today?_ He thought as he rang up another bouquet. The flower shop was a relatively newer store on this block, so it was small and just barely off the ground. Its hours weren’t usually so taxing, but on its lucky days, there was a consistent line of customers in need of bouquets.

“Lively as always, I see,” a familiar voice called out from behind the ginger, “We’re busy as ever, and you’re still able to keep up?”

Coming out from the back room was a man with shining silver hair and a grin that was just as bright. The little beauty mark on his cheek danced as he spoke, and Hinata couldn’t help but smile back at him as he tied the strings of his smock. “Sugawara-san!” he chirped excitedly as his coworker joined him at the counter. “You’re just in time. It’s been a crazy morning!”

“It looks like it. I’m glad that I can help— Ah, just a moment, ma’am,“ Sugawara began, but he was cut off by a call from a young woman across the shop.  With a somewhat apologetic smile, the silver-haired male waltzed around the counter, leaving Hinata by himself at the register again. _Well, it couldn’t be helped,_ Hinata thought as he gave himself a shrug. Turning to the front again, he took another cluster of flowers and proceeded to ring them up. However, there was something about this bouquet that made his tangerine eyebrows jump. Why did it look so familiar?

Five roses entangled by bouts of baby’s breath.

Sunset eyes glanced up to meet the shapr, rich brown of a very tall man, probably around as tall as Kuroo maybe? His hair was that same color too, like whisps of chocolate curling waving out from his tilted head. Regardless, Hinata couldn’t help but stare at him.

If there was one word to describe this guy –or rather, one phrase- it would be something along the lines of _Grand King_.

“I’m sorry if I’m just _that_ appealing, but I’m taken,” the customer suddenly spoke up playfully, giving Hinata a mischievous grin. The redhead blinked at him for a second as he fell back into reality with a start, quickly scrambling to mash the buttons on the cash register. “I’m not interested!” He blurted out, crumpling his brow as an embarrassing shade of pink brushed his cheeks. _This guy is definitely weird!_

The brunette just laughed at him as Hinata muttered out the total, only causing the poor florist’s ears to burn from humiliation before he handed the man’s flowers back to him. “Ah, but I might be, depending on whether or not these things work,” the stranger added on, making it almost sound as if his apparent situation was a joke, “Anyway, see you later shrimpy-chan!”

Hinata’s head shot up at the name, and he had to bite harshly on his tongue to keep from snapping back at the irritating guy as he left. Unfortunately, being called “shrimp” and “short” and the like was an often occurrence, so it was no surprise that Hinata’s temper would get the best of him every now and then. However, he had to watch his mouth, _especially_ when his manager was around. There was no way he was going to get fired over a bunch of stupid names.

Though being mistaken for a middle schooler every day when he was twenty-two years old was surely the biggest pain in his ass.

Still, he was thankful for the fact that today was incredibly busy so that he wouldn’t have to think about that weird guy anymore. That, and he would probably never see him again, like he would any of the other customers.

 

* * *

 

_“You’re annoyingly persistant today, Tobio-chan!”_

_The older setter stood before him on the court, a ball hooked under his arm and an irritated shine in those sharp eyes of his. Everyone had been cleaning up today after practice, throwing the balls into the cart and sweeping off the court, but first year Kageyama Tobio was standing still as a statue in front of his upperclassman._

_“You know what I want, don’t you?” he answered sternly, azure eyes narrowing. “Oikawa.”_

_Oikawa frowned before sticking his tongue out at the first year, pulling down on his eyelid and everything like a five-year old would. “There’s still no way that I’m gonna teach you anything, stupid Tobio-chan!” he pouted, “You’re a_ genius _, so you should be able to figure it out yourself, right?”_

_The raven clenched his teeth and looked down at the ground, irritation prickling underneath his skin._

_When he looked up, he had Oikawa’s shirt collar crumpled in his fist and the brunette’s back was smashed into the wall. Dark clouds were looming above them in the sky, and that’s when Kageyama remembered._

It was raining that day.

 _“Can’t you see that I’ve been admiring you this whole time, you fucking_ asshole _?!” the younger setter’s feelings suddenly boomed out of his chest, his voice cracking in frustration like the lightning that cracked over their heads. Cold rain dribbled down through his midnight hair and down the sides of his face as he roared. “I’ve been watching you since middle-school, since your skills are so incredible! I want to become the best setter in this whole fucking world because of_ you, _for God’s sake! Don’t you know how I feel at all!?”_

_Suddenly, slender fingers curled around Kageyama’s wrist and yanked him away, only to spin him around and switch their positions so that the younger male was the one trapped against the wall. He could feel the brick scrape through his practice shirt on his back, and he hissed aloud before meeting those mud-brown eyes._

_“If you’re so in love me, then you should have just said something, idiot.”_

_That was when the Grand King bent down low to his successor’s face, capturing his lips and starting a war._

Navy eyes snapped open and suddenly he wasn’t anywhere near their old high school anymore. He was twenty-one years old and laying awkwardly on a couch that was too small for him in some apartment. Groggily he sat up and rubbed at his eyes, trying to wipe away the tiredness from them. When his eyes found a clock, they widened too, since it was already 10:00am. Where was he again?

_Right. I’m at Hinata’s place…_

It wasn’t just Hinata’s either, that’s what he had to remind himself. The other two lived here too… Kuroo and Kenma, right? Something like that. Regardless, they had all let him in, and he honestly was grateful. What he wasn’t grateful for, however, was that his phone was resting on the bedside table. Maybe he left it in the bathroom or something last night? Either way, _someone_ put it there and the raven _really_ didn’t want to look at it. Reluctantly, Kageyama still reached over and turned it on, knowing that his dumbfuck of a boyfriend probably blew it up in some way or another. He didn’t actually _want_ to read the messages that he knew were coming, but he figured that he might as well in case Oikawa felt like getting worried or something. That is, if he even still cared about him anymore.

Four text messages, 6 missed calls, one new voicemail.

 _Might as well get this over with,_ he thought as he opened up his inbox.

 ** _From:_** _Stupid Oikawa_  
 **To:** Me  
 **Oct. 9 th 7:48PM**

_Babe we need to talk about this ;A;_

**_From:_** _Stupid Oikawa_  
 **To:** Me  
 **Oct. 9 th 7:52PM**

 _Are you there? Where did you go??_ ∑（｡･Д･｡）???

 ** _From:_** _Stupid Oikawa_  
 **To:** Me  
 **Oct. 9 th 8:01PM**

 _Are you coming home? I miss you_ (´ε｀ )♡

 ** _From:_** _Stupid Oikawa_  
 **To:** Me  
 **Oct. 9 th 8:02PM**

_Tobio?_

He wasn’t sure what pissed him off more, the excessive amount of emoticons, the petname “babe”, or how he was coming off as concerned. A scowl twisted on Kageyama’s features, and it felt like some sort of animal was clawing on the inside of his chest where his heart was supposed to be. His grip on his phone tightened, and if there was anything in the world he would rather die than do, it would be to listen to that damned voicemail.

Yet it didn’t stop him from pushing the call button anyway.

“ _Tobio-chan, are you there?_ ” Oikawa’s lighthearted voice rang out from the end of the receiver, making Kageyama cringe. Of course he wasn’t there if he didn’t pick up the goddamned phone! “ _Look, I’m really sorry for what happened today… I didn’t mean for this to happen._ ”

“Bullshit,” Kageyama whispered out loud.

“ _We need to talk about this, okay? Just come home already. If you stay out too late, you’ll catch a cold you know. I’ll be here when you get back. I love you._ ”

_There are no new messages…_

Kageyama sat there, frozen. His eyes were narrowed to slits as he let the automated voicemail system play its robotic recording. Those three words made him sick to his stomach, and a part of him was just _itching_ to smash his phone into pieces because of them. Were they even true anymore? Was Oikawa just making fun of him now? He gritted his teeth as he smacked the phone down on the coffee table with a loud clatter.

_Do you really?_

The young setter just sat there in silence as those damned words echoed in his mind, haunting his heart relentlessly. He felt disgusting, like something that had been used up and thrown away; he felt like one of Oikawa’s bad jokes. Yet at the same time, a crave-like feeling crept up in his throat like bile. _Say it to my face and mean it._

Navy orbs stuck on the little phone, giving it a glare that could stab someone straight through the heart. His heart and his mind were playing a painful game of tug-of-war with him. _Should I call him back? Should I not?_

_Can I even bear to hear his voice again?_

He was about to pick up the thing when he heard a loud yawn from down the hallway, causing the raven to lock up. Tilting his head around, he caught sight of one of Hinata’s roommates finally waking up. The one that really needed to get his hair re-dyed… Kozume, wasn’t it? With lazy, almost cat-like eyes, the fake-blonde glanced over at Kageyama as he passed him by, heading to the kitchen. “So you’re awake? Shouyou must be taking you back after work…” he muttered before he reached the other room. Kageyama didn’t answer him, but instead took his hand off the phone and slumped back into the couch. It was kind of soft, when he thought about it. A draining, silent sigh escaped from his mouth as he sunk into the couch, and his eyes slipped shut.

However, they immediately snapped back open when he heard a quiet clack in front of him.

Kozume was standing there, a bowl of cereal in his hand, and another bowl had been set before him on the little coffee table. “You didn’t eat yesterday. If Shouyou comes back with you on an empty stomach, he’ll get upset,” he spoke, his voice almost monotone as he made his way to the other end of the couch. Folding his legs up beneath him and somehow managing to balance filled bowl in one hand, he reached forward to grab the television remote.

“Thanks.”

Kageyama hesitantly took the bowl of cereal in his palms. It was cold, but not in an unfriendly way. In fact, it was pretty refreshing compared to the aridness of his throat. Internally, he grimaced when he looked down to see over fifty shades of colorful shapes floating around in the milk. He wasn’t much of a sugar fan, but he wasn’t going to shoot down _another_ meal from these people, especially without Hinata there. It was as if he was lost in some strange country and the redhead was his translator or something.

Wait, since when did he start thinking he was actually close to this stranger?

_It’s only temporary… Just ignore it._

The raven’s eyes flickered up to meet the television screen, mindlessly watching different channels click by as he started to eat. It seemed like Kozume wasn’t really interested in anything that was on either. The only reason why the room wasn’t so quiet was because the humdrum noise of the TV was filling up the silence. “Nothing’s good on TV anymore,” the pudding-haired male mumbled as he fell back into the couch in defeat, just letting one of the channels play.

“Hn,” Kageyama grunted in agreement, his mouth full of that sugary cereal at that moment.

An awkward sort of atmosphere fell over them again, and all the raven could do was shift around once or twice on the couch. Why couldn’t this guy fill the space with some sort of words? Well, he wasn’t much of a talker either, but this was getting a little too stifling, even for Kageyama. He was in some stranger’s house with people that he didn’t really know at all.

_It’s not like it matters much, though. It’s just temporary._

The conversation ended there, since neither of them had anything to talk about, really. That, and Kageyama wasn’t too much in a chit-chat mood either, and he had no idea what Kozume was thinking either. However, when the pudding-haired male finished his bowl, he stood up from the couch and set the remote down by Kageyama’s phone, handing it over to him before he spoke up again. “This is why I don’t get involved with romance. No one benefits from it in the end… Good luck, I guess.”

That was all he said before the older male left the room with the empty bowl in his hand. It was an odd way to end the nonexistent conversation, but the raven had no time to question it. Kozume was already in the kitchen, washing out the leftover droplets of milk down the drain and making his way back to his room to do God knows what. What was with the people in this apartment? Were they all a bunch of weirdos or something?

The next couple hours had that uncomfortable air hanging over him. Nothing was on TV, and it felt like no one was home either, despite Kozume being in the next room. His mind had become something completely blank, even though he was so used to calculating hundreds of thoughts at once. He was used to being preoccupied that when the world suddenly slowed down, he felt like he was lost in cold space, aimlessly drifting and silently numb.

He wasn’t even sure if his broken heart was the cause or the effect.

“I’m home!”

A voice rung out from the entryway, causing Kageyama to immediately look up. Hinata was in the midst of slipping out of his shoes, arms outstretched as he tried balancing himself –though he still ended up wobbling back and forth. Regardless, that fluffy orange bunch of curls still bounced up when the ginger lifted his head, flashing a brilliant grin at him from the entryway. “Hey,” Kageyama grunted back as he set down the remote. How long had he had that in his hand again?

“Is there anything on? Is there a volleyball game on?” Hinata blurted out excitedly as he hurried his way over to the couch, practically flinging himself onto it. However, as soon as he sunk in, he shot right back up, leaning forward eagerly and eyes glimmering brightly in anticipation. Seeing as Kageyama had landed on some news channel, the ginger’s brow crumpled in disappointment. “Don’t make such a gross face, dumbass,” Kageyama cut in curtly, “The V. Premier League doesn’t start up again until December. It’s off-season right now.”

Hinata’s head spun around so he could poke his tongue out at him, whining, “This is my normal face!”

“Then God help us when you get _seriously_ upset,” Kageyama shot back, only making Hinata sputter in agitation, like some sort of baby bird with his feathers puffed out. Surely his hair was doing the same, or was it just that fluffy-looking? Regardless, it seemed like he wasn’t good at making comebacks and better at creating annoying noise.

“Oh—wait a minute,” Hinata suddenly cut himself off without paying any mind to Kageyama’s irked glaring, “We gotta get important stuff out of the way.” The words were like a sudden bomb dropping on the mood, and the raven’s face must have twisted because Hinata just as suddenly leaned away from him. The shorter male opened his mouth to speak, but Kageyama just shot straight up from his spot on the couch to stop him. He knew what he was going to say.

“Then let’s go,” Kageyama grumbled darkly, already making his way toward the door. It was time to go ahead and get this over with, wasn’t it?

 

* * *

 

Kageyama knew that he would have to face this eventually, but even on the train ride to the station closest to his and Oikawa’s apartment, he still didn’t know what to do. This… _tragedy_ just happened last night, so there was no reason to rush anything was there? Was he even going to completely move out, or was he going to put up with him for a little while and stay? Well, either way he was going to get out of there eventually, but where would he go after that? He had his arms crossed and gaze fixated somewhere on the floor, losing himself in thought. He was always one for planning, calculations, so he had to figure out what he was going to do.

“…hey.”

“Hey.”

“Oi, Kageyama!” Hinata’s voice busted through the raven’s train of thought, and as per usual gave him a headache. Clicking his tongue, Kageyama tilted his head around so he could meet the other’s eyes, his own narrowing at Hinata. “What is it, dumbass?”

Hinata adjusted in his seat, turning slightly so that he could somewhat face Kageyama, his expression painted uneasy. “We’re almost at the stop,” he started before biting his lip. “But… can I ask what happened? Just in case we run into—“

Kageyama lifted his hand up to cut him off, “He’s at work. Or he should be.”

“Ah,” Hinata breathed in, turning to face forward again. The train slowly hissed to a stop at the station, and as the crowd of passengers began to rise up and flood out the door, Kageyama’s words suddenly clicked.

“Wait— _he_?!” Hinata practically screeched out, leaping up out of his seat as Kageyama calmly rose up. He had told this to people many times, so despite hating the common reaction, he was rather used to it. “Y-Y-You have a _boyfriend_?!” the redhead gasped, earning a harsh smack to the back of the head.

“You don’t have to shout, dumbass,” Kageyama huffed as he made his way off the train, forcing Hinata to nearly sprint after him.

“Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?”

“Does it even matter anyway?” the raven quickly retorted as they wove their way through the crowd and onto the sidewalk.

“Well- no, I don’t really care what other people do, but—“ Hinata stammered, trying to recover, but Kageyama went ahead and cut him off again.

“Then you shouldn’t have freaked the hell out like you originally did, idiot,” Kageyama shot back, “Yes, I have a boyfriend. End of story.” The raven let out a disgruntled groan as they walked, and he ended up unconsciously speeding up his pace. He just wanted to get this _dolt_ out of his hair already.

“S-Sorry…” Hinata mumbled, hanging his head slightly for a moment. Suddenly he perked up like a bird finding a worm, recovering from his temporary guilt immediately. “So what did he do to you, anyway?”

At the question, Kageyama was silent. It wasn’t like he was trying to not answer, but more so trying to find the right words for it. He probably wouldn’t see the redhead again after this, so it wasn’t like it mattered anyway.

“…cheated,” he muttered, the word bitter on his tongue.

“What was that?”

“He cheated on me,” Kageyama repeated, lowering his gaze to the floor. This time, it was Hinata’s turm to be silent, and when the taller male turned his head he saw the other just gawking at him. Hell, he even ended up stopping because he was shocked.  Kageyama let out an inaudible breath as he turned, stuffing his hands in his coat pockets as he stopped. “Came home to him and his best friend fucking around on the couch,” he added on, his features darkening by the second.

Images of that night cascaded through his mind every time he blinked. Repeating it would be fine, reassuring himself Oikawa would like his flowers; opening the door, the scattered clothes and hot breaths; his heart inevitably shattering. He willed the scene to not play in his head, since he just didn’t want to think about it anymore.

In Hinata’s eyes, he looked ready to murder someone over it. With a shiver, Hinata caught up to him, an almost heartbroken frown painted on his face. “That’s awful!” he answered, clearly distressed, and that only caused Kageyama to raise an eyebrow. “What did you do?” Hinata asked as they turned onto the street that the young setter’s apartment was on.

“Shoved the flowers in his face and left him to do what he obviously _wanted_ to do,” Kageyama spat the words out like venom in his mouth. “The thorns on those things are sharp as hell you know.” His injured fingers flexed in his pockets as he remembered practically ripping the roses from the wrap and smashing them into that bastard’s face. Well… he might have just thrown them at him, but it just made him feel better thinking that he fucked up Oikawa’s princely face.

“That’s terrible…” Hinata breathed quietly, “I’m so sorry, Kageyama.” Those chocolate orbs of his flickered up to Kageyama, swirling with sympathy.

“It’s not your fault,” the taller male dismissed as they entered the building.

Hinata took in the view with honest surprise. It was actually a nice building, like one of the fancy apartment buildings that he would see on TV shows. “You live in here?” he spoke up as they neared the elevator, and Kageyama’s shoulders sagged slightly, obvious relief in the change of topic. He answered with a nod of his head, “He’s in a nice management position at a hotel on the north side of town. And I got my own scholarships from my university, so I can keep up with rent.”

The ginger sucked in a gasp in awe as they stepped into the elevator. He had never been in such a nice place before, so it was all fascinating to take in. “You don’t seem like a braniac to me,” Hinata snorted at him, “Did you bribe your way in or somethi—o-ow! Lemme go!” His teasing was cut short by Kageyama reaching over and nabbing a tight hold onto his tangerine hair, tugging harshly enough that Hinata could feel it in his roots.

“I was scouted for volleyball, dumbass!” he hissed before letting go, “That’s how! I’m the official setter on the university team.”

At that, Hinata froze solid, just gawking at him in awe. His eyes were sparkling and his mouth was agape as he stared up at Kageyama. “So cool!” he breathed out, leaning forward slightly as the elevator reached Kageyama’s floor. Said setter leaned back in response, his eyebrow raising again. What was with this kid?

More importantly, how could someone so childish be _older_ than him?!

Questions flew out of Hinata’s mouth left and right, asking what the regime was and how practices went and what tournaments were like, but Kageyama just let him ramble. As annoying as Hinata’s voice was, he couldn’t help but wonder how long he could go on for until he collapsed from lack of air. However, his stamina seemed limitless. Without giving him any kind of answer, the pair of them reached the door, and Kageyama stood there in silence.

Oikawa would be working.

No one’s in there.

Only he and Hinata were here.

It won’t happen again.

Kageyama exhaled, and it took him a moment to realize that somewhere along the line he had stopped breathing. It was just the apartment. There’s nothing to be worried about. Tentatively, Kageyama took out his key and unlocked the door, and opened it.

It was empty.

As the two of them stepped inside, Kageyama looked around almost cautiously. No one was home, and the place actually looked pretty _clean_ too, as if last night hadn’t happened at all. Any evidence of the bouquet was gone, same with the clothes too. A part of him felt somewhat relieved at that, but he still couldn’t shake the images out of his mind of what the living room used to look like.

“Uwahhh!” Hinata’s outburst from behind made the raven jump, “It’s so big!”

Hinata peered around from behind Kageyama to gaze at how clean and sparkling everything looked, like everything was kind of brand new or something. His apartment wasn’t nearly as nice as Kageyama’s, so it was kind of a treat to see some place so fancy. The living room looked like something out of a modern living magazine that Hinata had picked up while waiting in line at the convenience store once.

Kageyama moved ahead and hung up his jacket before slipping out of his shoes, Hinata quickly following suit. “You stay out here and don’t break anything,” Kageyama huffed, giving the redhead a look.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Hinata pouted back at him, crossing his arms. “I won’t break anything.”

Kageyama swallowed thickly before making his way back to their bedroom, the air feeling cold and heavy. He couldn’t help but imagine that maybe this wasn’t the first time that Oikawa brought someone else home, and it made him wonder how many other people shared this bed with him? There had been some nights where Kageyama’s training would go longer than expected, so he could have had the time…

The raven let out a curse between his gnashed teeth and dug around for a bag to pack.

Hinata stood in the living room, feeling uneasy. Hell, he started fidgeting too, since he had no idea what to do. Was he supposed to just sit and wait, or maybe he could help him pack up stuff? The ginger slowly made his way back, heading to the room that Kageyama was in –which he assumed was the bedroom that he and his boyfriend shared- but a door caught the corner of his eye, causing him to stop.

When Hinata tried to turn the doorknob, it refused to budge.

“Hey, Kageyama, what’s this room for?” Hinata called out as he stared inquisitively at the door.

“My parents required we live in a two bedroom apartment, but we never use the other one,” Kageyama called back, but then shouted, “ _HEY_! I TOLD YOU TO STAY IN THE LIVING ROOM, DUMBASS!”

“I got curious!” Hinata defended himself, “I don’t like just sitting there and doing nothing, so at least let me come help you out or somethi—“

In midsentence, the shorter male heard the sound of a door opening, and peered back out to the living room to see someone standing there. He was tall, for starters, and his hair curled gracefully in chocolate waves on his head. He carried himself like some sort of king, but the bouquet in his hand was like the cherry on the cake.

“Tobio-chan, are you home? The door was unlocked! Ah- it’s shrimpy-chan from the flower shop!” the man waved the roses in his hand, and had the audacity to wear a grin.

Hinata’s words caught in his throat and his eyes widened as he gawked at the guy, recognizing him immediately as that weird guy from work earlier that day. At first it was so quiet that Hinata could hear a pin drop, but suddenly the redhead threw up his hand to point right at the stranger.

“W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!”

 


	4. One Night Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You think we’re friends?” Kageyama growled, stepping closer and smacking a palm against the wall right by Hinata’s head. “I’ve only known you for what- a day, day and a half? That doesn’t make us friends, dumbass! We’re just strangers! Sure, you helped me out for a night, but I know nothing about you, and you know nothing about me, so how about you do me a favor and go back to your dumb flower-filled job and great friends and happy life, and let me go back and try to fix things before you fuck everything up!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! This chapter was kind of short, but this is one of those scenarios of quality of words being greater than quantity. Honestly, this chapter was kinda hard to write because Oikawa's character is difficult and... well, if you read this, you'll understand. Also, I wanna point out that holy heck there are so many comments and kudos and bookmarks and wow I feel like I don't deserve such gifts, but I'm very grateful!! Thank you guys so much again, for all the support, and as always, any kind of feedback is super appreciated!
> 
> Happy Reading!

“All discarded lovers should be given a second chance, but with somebody else.” 

― Mae West,  _Wit & Wisdom of Mae West_

* * *

 

Hinata could only stand there in a state of shock where everything focused on that one thing that was the most surprising. The guy that Kageyama had just been talking about was standing _right there_ , and what made it worse was that he was acting like everything was just dandy and wonderful in the world. All Hinata could think about was the phrase, “Speak of the Devil.”

“If it isn’t obvious, I live here, shrimpy-chan,” the brunette practically sang at him as he stepped inside, “But you don’t. Did Tobio-chan make a friend when he left, or is he just trying to get back at me?”

“Neither, Oikawa,” Kageyama’s voice growled out from behind the ginger, and he turned to see that the other male had appeared, glare intensely fixed on Oikawa’s face. “What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be working?”

The brunette just sighed as he hung up his coat, being careful about the flowers in his palm. “I wanted to spend some time with my adorable Tobio-chan. Is that too much to ask?” With that, Oikawa started making his way toward them, ignoring the fact that Hinata was there at all – and quite frankly, that _seriously_ pissed him off.

“After that stunt last night?” Kageyama scoffed bitterly, “Of course-“

“Hey _, wait a minute!_ ” Hinata jumped in –literally as well as figuratively. Standing between the two of them, he gave the newcomer a mixed look of anger and confusion. “ _You’re_ the one that cheated on Kageyama, right?”

Oikawa only answered with a quick glance to the side. “Hinata—“ Kageyama growled out a short warning that was completely ignored.

“Then why are you coming back to him?” the ginger asked, and despite his defensive stance, the question almost sounded innocent, as if _he_ was supposed to be the one most confused. “If you don’t care about him enough to stay with, him, then why--?”

“ _HINATA!_ ” Kageyama instantaneously snapped, smacking the back of his head harshly before snagging that damned red hair of his. His voice was _oozing_ in agitation, Hinata’s words clearly crossing some line he never realized had been there in the first place. The redhead could only gasp and hiss at the straining feeling in his hair follicles as Kageyama literally dragged him toward the front door. Hell, the raven was so pissed off that he shoved Oikawa –whom of which was obviously amused by the scene- out of the way so he could storm out the door with Hinata by the hair.

Releasing his vice grip on the tangerine locks, Kageyama slammed the door behind him, leaving Oikawa alone in the apartment and himself out in the hallway with a whining Hinata. “O-ow!” the redhead groaned, patting at his throbbing scalp. “What’s your problem?”

“What’s _my_ problem!?” Kageyama spat, whipping right around to face Hinata head on, and the shorter male swore he saw some black aura cloud swirling from the setter’s direction. “ _My_ problem is a certain _idiot_ that sticks his nose into other people’s business!”

“I was just trying to help you out,” Hinata countered, “He hurt you, so I don’t see why he would want to spend any more time with you, especially if he—“

“ _I KNOW WHAT HE DID!_ ” Kageyama roared at him, marching right up him, causing the florist to back up into the wall. From here, the setter seemed to tower over him, not including his height. “It’s called trying to make up, you dolt! Have you never been in a relationship before? Damnit, of all people still being around, why the hell are _you_ still here?”

“What? You asked me to help you pack up stuff,” Hinata answered, “That’s why I’m here. And sorry for not having any experience in the dating world, but I wanted to stick up with you because that’s what friends do!” That shut Kageyama up real quick, and he just stood there with a baffled expression.

“You think we’re _friends_?” Kageyama growled, stepping closer and smacking a palm against the wall right by Hinata’s head. “I’ve only known you for what- a day, day and a half? That doesn’t make us friends, dumbass! We’re just _strangers_! Sure, you helped me out for a night, but I know nothing about you, and you know nothing about me, so how about you do me a favor and go back to your dumb flower-filled job and great friends and happy life, and let me go back and try to fix things before you fuck everything up!”

Hinata’s eyes widened as Kageyama panted above him, surprised that that entire explosion could be in one breath. The silence between them thickened the longer that they stood there, and a feeling of guilt welled up in Hinata’s stomach, but the hurt from Kageyama’s words made it sink down like a rock. Mud-brown eyes sharpened, burning livid as Hinata pushed back on the setter’s chest so he could start walking toward the elevator down the hall with a, “Fine!”

“But you know what?” Hinata suddenly stopped and turned on his heel to look the raven right into his navy blue eyes, “You’re absolutely right. You know _nothing_ about me, but have you never made a friend before? Of course you don’t know everything about them from the get-go, that’s what being around each other is for. But if you wanna center your world around someone who doesn’t care about you, then you go on right ahead!” With that, he started charging for the elevator, but a new voice stopped him.

“Shrimpy-chan!” Oikawa called as he opened the door, holding up a coat and a pair of shoes, “Don’t forget about these. It’s pretty cold out there.”

Hinata hesitated for a moment before padding over to Oikawa and snatching up his things. Mumbling a short word of gratitude, he made his way to the elevator, not even looking up at Kageyama as he passed him. He just kept his eyes on the ground, even as the elevator doors quietly closed shut.

The raven just stood out in the hall in utter silence, his eyes locked on the ground as well when Hinata went to grab his things from Oikawa, but before he could glance up at the ginger once more, he was already gone behind the sleek metal doors of the elevator. His fists were clenched, white-knuckled at his sides and feet frozen in place. What was with this kid? Why did _he_ look so hurt by this? And who the hell considers someone more than just an acquaintance after one night? Sure he sort of made him feel better, but that didn’t give Hinata the right to thrust himself face-first into his world.

The brunette just hung in the doorway, waiting for Kageyama to move, to say something at least, but nothing came. He just stood there, absolutely fuming. With an easy-going exhale, Oikawa moved out into the hall, reaching out a hand for Kageyama’s to pull him inside. However, once they were back in the living room, the setter ripped his hand away from Oikawa’s, reeling around to face him. “And you, don’t touch me!” he snapped.

Other than that, he had no idea what to say.

What did he ask first? Where did he start? A million and one questions drilled through his head, the ones he had rehearsed over and over, but saying them out loud was ten times harder than he had imagined it to be. In short, he would have to admit that it happened. His eyes flickered to the roses on the coffee table, then back up to Oikawa, whose smile was gone. His face was calm, almost blank, showing that serious side that only a few had seen.

It was like that same expression he wore when it was raining…

“Tobio-chan,” Oikawa started, taking in a breath.

“Stop,” Kageyama’s voice cut in, but it wasn’t as harsh as it was before, “Just… stop.” It was the raven’s turn to suck in a breath, and his eyes locked onto the older male’s before he continued. “I just… I want to know why.”

The brunette sighed, looking away and rubbing the back of his head. His eyes were led astray by the window, noticing that it was well into the afternoon by now. The sun was starting to set outside, painting the room an uncomfortably warm shade of yellow, despite it being so cold. He was silent for a long time, which was pretty weird for Oikawa to be. Maybe… maybe he really did feel guilty after all? All the while, Kageyama didn’t remove his gaze.

“I…” Oikawa began, his words slow and calculated, “I feel like this isn’t working. We were hanging out, and I’ve always had feelings for Iwa-chan…” Kageyama had known that, during those late nights where they would actually sit around and talk without butting heads with each other. Oikawa and Iwaizumi were on a level that Kageyama had never thought he would be able to reach, but he always chose to forget the romantic aspect of that description. “I guess I ended up using you to try and suppress them but—“

“Excuse me?” Kageyama asked, raising his eyebrows in warning.

“W-Well…!” Oikawa quickly shot his hands up, glancing away for a moment before they fell back to his sides, “I did love you Tobio, but I don’t think I can anymore. You simply can’t captivate me like Iwa-chan can.”

Never ending silence ensued after that, and it felt like the whole world was shattering beneath Kageyama’s feet. It was like all the sudden he was standing alone on a pillar that was way too high, and that if he moved from that one spot he would fall deep into… well, the scariest part was that he didn’t know where he’d land now. There was no one to catch him anymore. Despite how much they had fought in the past, Oikawa had been around. He was always there, silently behind him despite the fact that they had wanted to out-do each other in everything. It was like they were racing, but holding onto each other at the same time.

It was as if they sent each other tosses, but this time Oikawa wasn’t there behind him to score the point.

The setter bent his head down, his shoulders shaking as he felt that ripping feeling in his chest, but _goddamnit_ did he refuse to let those tears fall. Oikawa didn’t deserve them. They burned in the corners of his eyes as he started to speak through gritted teeth. “You… we… we were together… for _five. Fucking. Years._ And you _just_ now figured that out?” Kageyama hissed out slowly, and suddenly his head snapped up. “I was just some sort of _tool_ for _five goddamn years_ to you, to try and block out some feelings you had for someone else?! I know that you liked Iwaizumi-san for a while, but you’re with _me_ you idiot! _I’m_ the one that you should be looking at! _I’m_ the one that you should be thinking about, that should have been with you on that damned couch last night, not Iwaizumi or _anyone_ else!” The raven stormed up to Oikawa and grabbed a hold of him by the collar, slamming him against the wall, and himself against his “boyfriend”.

“Can you not see me anymore?!” Kageyama continued on, and he could feel wetness dribble on his cheeks, heartbreak and agony ripping through his words, “Am I not good enough for you?! Every day since you told me that you loved Iwaizumi too, do you not realize how hard I tried to get in like _he_ can?! I fucking love you more than anything else, but can you not even see that anymore?!”

“Tobio—“

“One night,” Kageyama cut him off, looking up at the older male, desperate determination burning in his eyes, “Give me one night to prove to you… Let me show you everything that _I_ can do for you. _Tooru_.” Kageyama leaned up, gripping onto Oikawa’s shirt tightly before yanking the older male down to smash their lips together.

If he were to look back on this moment, the worst part about it would be that Oikawa let him.

As the sun fell and the moon rose, the night was spent stealing breath away from lungs; entangling bodies in a desperate search to find the fire that caused their bodies to burn. Even the smallest of sparks would be enough heat to solder together the cracks in Kageyama’s heart.

No matter how rough and passionate they became, the setter felt like he was encased in a layer of rubber. He could feel the touch, but not the love; the sensation, but not the intensity. His body reacted as it should, and Oikawa’s did as well, but no matter how hard they tried, it wasn’t working anymore.

“I’m sorry.”

“Shut up.”

Oikawa’s quiet words in the midnight moonlight of their bedroom weren’t enough. The fact that they held onto each other after wasn’t enough, and both of them knew it. The distance that damned incident made between them was far too great to build a bridge across.

Somehow, the older male was able to fall asleep, arms wrapped around Kageyama’s frame and face buried into the setter’s raven hair, but Kageyama just laid there. No amount of blankets or body heat could keep him from feeling so cold, and quite frankly, regret and disgust coated his skin. He felt clammy, like he didn’t belong in this place anymore no matter how much he wanted to. Like his body took control of itself, Kageyama found himself untangling himself from Oikawa’s hold and quietly padding out of the room. He didn’t look back as he passed through the doorway, and neither did he when he went down the hall, standing in front of that door that they always kept locked and reaching up to grab the key resting on the doorframe.

The room was set up like any other bedroom, but it was so devoid of anyone living there that all the surfaces were covered in dust. It was clean, but cold, completely unlived in; yet in that moment, Kageyama didn’t want to be anywhere else. Closing the door behind him, he crawled into the bed and curled himself up in a ball beneath the stiff blanket. It was a room they thought they would never have to use, but that night…

That night, it was the only room where Kageyama could be.

Seconds fell into minutes, and the minutes felt more like hours the longer that the setter laid there in silence before a sound bounced quietly off the walls. It was a choked sound, and it sounded so damn small. Another came and then one more, before the sniffles came, and that was when Kageyama realized the noises were coming from his mouth. The sudden burn in his eyes, the way his nose ran: he was crying. The setter hated crying, more than anything in the world. It was showing weakness, pain, vulnerability.

But Kageyama kept on crying.

Oikawa Tooru had been his idol, in a way. At first, he was drawn in by his amazing talent, his elegant form of leadership. He was agitated by his childishness, his inability to take things seriously, but still… Oikawa Tooru had eventually became his first love; his first kiss; his first everything. From that moment forward, Kageyama vowed that Oikawa would also be his last.

He would never get hurt by this again.

He had no idea how it happened, but he must have ended up tiring himself out by crying, because the last thing he could remember was the salty dryness on his cheeks along with the uncomfortable feeling of foreign bedsheets on his skin before he drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Hinata had taken the longest train route back home that night, and even then he took a stroll throughout the neighborhood. It wasn’t really that he didn’t want to be home, but he just felt the need to keep moving. He didn’t want to stop, he couldn’t slow down, but his legs just felt like moving, and Hinata let them go wherever they pleased. It wasn’t like he could think of a direction to go in, since he was way too busy repeating that fight in his head.

His first conclusion was that Kageyama was an ungrateful idiot.

Hinata had taken him in, gave him food, a bath, and Kuroo even let him borrow his clothes! This was how he repaid his kindness, by practically throwing him out of the apartment by his hair? Hinata had done so much for him and yet—he had a point. They hadn’t known each other for very long, and that was true, but was it weird to think that he and Kageyama were familiar friends? It felt like it, in the very least, since in the small talk they made, they bickered like any other friends would. They teased each other, like a couple of dumb kids in highschool, yet… they had only known of each other for a night.

Okay, maybe Kageyama wasn’t a _complete_ idiot.

The redhead realized the more that he understood how weird he was acting, the more he slumped as he walked; guilt was a heavy weight on his back. How come he wanted to jump in and help out this random guy anyway? And why did he even try to talk to him on that train in the first place? Any other person would have just ignored it. “It’s not my problem,” that’s what anyone else would have said.

Yet, Hinata couldn’t wrap his head around just how it all happened. It just kind of _did_.

“Augh!” Hinata groaned out loud, grinding his own fingers into his hair, “I’m thinking too much into this.” His breath curled out of his mouth in white wisps of smoke. Maybe he was just too friendly? But was that necessarily a bad thing? Well, either way, it wasn’t like he could do anything about it now, now that Kageyama had thrown him out for good. Still, he did want to apologize for sticking himself into Kageyama and his boyfriend’s business, since it didn’t have anything to do with him. Would he ever see the setter ever again to make up for it?

Probably not.

For now, the ginger let out a defeated groan as his tired feet carried him back up to the apartment, and he wasn’t surprised that the lights were still on. Kenma was probably worried that he ended up staying out much later than he had intended, and Kuroo had the day off the next day, so he didn’t need to go to bed as early.

“So your boyfriend dumped you?” Kuroo’s voice rang in as soon as Hinata walked inside, hanging up his coat with a short groan.

“I told you before we’re just—“ Before Hinata could stop himself, Kageyama’s words echoed in his ears. “—strangers.”

Kuroo –who had been sprawled across the couch, watching TV- straightened up to give Hinata a questioning stare. “Strangers?” he repeated, sounding almost astonished at the ginger’s wording. “Now, that doesn’t sound like the shorty I know.”

“Hey,” Hinata sighed, punching Kuroo’s arm lightly as he moved over to plop down on the couch beside him. “Where’s Kenma?”

“In the bath,” Kuroo said, before turning slightly in Hinata’s direction, “You got into a fight with him, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but he’s just so frustrating!” Hinata answered, wanting to rip his hair out, “He—“

“Of course he is,” Kuroo stopped him before he could go on some sort of tangent, waving his hand back and forth. “He’s gone through some rough shit, kid, so of course he’s gonna be prickly. Whenever the hell you decide to get volleyball out of your head and find some kind of love-life, you’re gonna find out that there’s a hell of a lot of pain that comes with romance.”

“You’re barely one to talk,” Hinata pouted at him, causing Kuroo to slap a hand against his own chest, mocking pain.

“Oh-ouch!” the bedhead whined, “That’s low, dude. _Real_ low. But I’m serious, heartbreak kind of really sucks. Just give him a little bit of time, and you’ll go from strangers to boyfriends in no time.” That earned him a hard smack on the shoulder, Hinata puffing out his chest in protest.

“Can you stop saying that?” Hinata responded, “I don’t want to date him or anything, I just wanna make sure he’s fine!” At that, the ginger stopped himself, leaning back against the couch, like he was trying to withdraw himself. “Uh… is that weird though? To worry about someone that you’ve just met.”

“Maybe. But that’s what I like about Shouyou,” Kenma’s voice broke in, causing both to turn their heads. The pudding-haired male walked in from down the hallway in a baggy t-shirt and sweatpants, a towel draped around his neck. Blonde tips rested on the fabric as the water from his hair dripped onto it, and his dark brown hair looking black from the water. “That’s what makes you Shouyou, I guess.”

Kuroo reached around the back of the couch to give his childhood friend a proud smack on the back, making Kenma jump. “Attaboy, Kenma! When did you get so insightful?” he teased, only earning a glare from the other.  “Well, that’s why you were Nekoma’s brain, right?”

“Can we not bring that stupid speech up? It’s embarrassing.”

Kuroo snorted as Kenma rolled his eyes, moving out of the raven’s range, and Hinata even chuckled too, causing the oldest of the three to turn his head to him. “There’s your laugh, kiddo,” Kuroo pointed out, turning back to face Hinata again. “Trust me, I feel like you’ll meet up with him again, though. There’s no way someone can get out of shorty’s clutches so easily!” For a moment, Kuroo shot a look at Kenma –whom of which pretended to ignore the attention before moving back to the bathroom to put his towel- and Hinata laughed aloud, turning his focus to the television.

“Thanks,” the ginger spoke up, his usual grin slowly returning to his face.

“There’s no need to get so mushy now,” Kuroo groaned, but he was wearing his crafty smirk, almost as if he knew something Hinata didn’t. “How about this: I kick your ass at Mario Kart, and then you can go to bed like the good little boy you are.”

Hinata’s head spun around so that his gaze could lock onto Kuroo’s challenging expression, and the florist didn’t hesitate to jump up and nab the nearest controller. Hinata wasn’t great at a lot of video games, but ever since Kenma and Kuroo had shown him Mario Kart, it had always been his goal to crush them both at the game at least once before the next game came out.

The rest of the night had involved plenty of screaming, _especially_ when Kenma decided to join in. However the only reason why the noise augmented wasn’t because of a third voice to be added, but because the pudding-haired male had picked for them to play Rainbow Road, and –as he usually did- left both Kuroo and Hinata in the dust.

Of course, the landlord wasn’t too happy about that either.

As they turned down the volume of the game and silently screamed at each other, Hinata couldn’t help but wonder whether or not he would actually see Kageyama ever again. Sure, Kuroo and Kenma’s words were pretty encouraging, but what were the odds that the raven would walk into that flower shop again, or that they would bump into each other again? Hinata didn’t know, but it surely wasn’t best to dwell on it. Only time would be able to tell. For now, it was time for him to slip back into his simple routine and see.


	5. Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With an exhausted sigh, Kageyama flung himself to his bed, not even caring that his hair was still matted down with shower water. He could still feel the steam swirling up off his skin, since he loved his showers almost scalding hot. It was nice to take a relaxing shower every now and then. The only thought that nagged his mind throughout was why Hinata made such a distasteful face earlier. Thinking back on it, Hinata looked sort of troubled, which was really odd considering how stupidly happy he always looked. That face doesn’t fit you, Kageyama thought, flipping over on his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it's been a while since I updated this thing! Sorry about that, friends, there was a lot of life events as of recent, so I've just been out of the habit of writing. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll get back into it soon. And just because I took so long to update, I've made this chapter extra-long just for you guys! Thank you all so much for the kudos, comments, book marks, and things, it really helped me get back up on my feet! And now, the long awaited chapter 5!
> 
> Happy Reading! :)

“Sometimes the most beautiful thing is precisely the one that comes unexpectedly and unearned, hence something given truly as a present.”

\- Anna Freud 

* * *

  

  _FWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!_

And thus was the conclusion of yet another afternoon of practice for the raven; the sound of the coach’s whistle blaring nearly caused his eardrum to bust. Wiping his brow on his sleeve, Kageyama knelt down to pick up some of the practice balls he had been using to try and conquer a new jump serving technique. However, he didn’t toss them back into the bin like everyone else had been. Instead, he just picked them up and ran over to where he had been serving from before.

_Keep going._

_Get better._

_Nothing else matters._

Completely ignoring a few calls from his teammates, the setter tossed the ball into the air in front of him, allowing him a running start for his jump. _This angle, this height,_ Kageyama drummed in his mind, _with this amount of power… there!_ As soon as he was ready, he slung his arm and slapped the ball hard, but his timing was off. Sure, he had cleared the net, but he ended up clearing it _too much_ for his liking. At this rate, it would surely be out—

_SMACK!_

—if the coach hadn’t been standing there.

Navy moons popping wide, Kageyama gawked at the now reddening cheek on the coach’s enraged face, then sucked in a breath. _Well shit,_ he chided himself mentally as the coach stormed over to him, _I really did it now._ Kageyama’s coach was an older man whose chestnut hair was about as short as his patience with players who weren’t dedicated – at least, that’s what he was well known for. Usually, the pair got along fine, but it seemed that the man’s fuse was nearly spent. Okay, he wasn’t _that_ angry, but he still looked pretty fed up anyway.

“Kageyama!” the coach barked, causing the setter to jolt and brace himself. However, the man just let out an annoyed sigh through his nose and gave Kageyama a stern look. “You’ve been acting differently for what- two weeks now?”

Kageyama raised an eyebrow. “Sir?”

The man wiped a palm down his face and sighed, “You’re not playing like you usually do. You’re more… What’s the word… Aggressive? Agitated? Regardless, over the past two weeks or so, your performance is declining, and it’s starting to make me nervous. Did something happen, Kageyama?”

It was the setter’s turn to make a face. Flashes of that night passed through his mind’s eye, of he and Oikawa tangled together, the numbed feelings shared between them. Internally, the raven shuddered, not wanting to think about it anymore –but despite that, the memories flooded his mind anyway. The morning after, Oikawa had noticed that Kageyama had left the room, and just let him sleep in there the rest of that morning. And that afternoon… they broke up. The setter had moved out into a place of his own, which was considerably smaller, but it still felt weird, living by himself. It wasn’t like he stayed there much anyway, since his schedule was basically something like: wake up, practice, go to bed, with meals in between.

Suddenly, Kageyama felt one of the couch’s hands press onto his shoulder. “Look, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. But for now, go home. Take a break for a couple days, try and get yourself back on your feet. I’ll bench you if you start slacking off!”

“Coach,” Kageyama tried to protest, “I’m _fine_.”

The man gave him a deadpan expression before tilting his head just enough so that he could show off his cherry-colored cheek. “Does _this_ look fine to you?” he huffed, even pointing at it for good measure.

“Sorry…” the setter muttered, hanging his head as a dash of shame darkened his eyes. He expected some sort of nice, long lecture about lacking concentration or something, but to his surprise, the man just laughed and slapped his player’s shoulder once more.

“Don’t worry so much about it. I’m letting it slide, since you’re kinda out of it. Just take a break, and come back when you feel like you can aim a nice serve inside the line, alright?” with a half-grin, the coach gave him one last pat on the back.

“And put those balls away! I gotta lock up,” he added before he made his way toward a group of newer players to talk to them.

_Take a break?_ Kageyama thought to himself as he finally tossed the balls he had into the bin with the others. _That’s impossible. I have to keep getting stronger._ That was his mantra, ever since he had started playing volleyball. He just had to keep playing, to improve and improve until he couldn’t anymore.

“ _I’ll bench you if you start slacking off!_ ”

The coach’s words rang in his head, and he paused in his thoughts, just letting the words echo and settle in his mind. Kageyama’s drive for improving so much was just to be able to _keep playing_. He wanted his heart to hammer madly in his chest from the thrill of the game. He wanted his arm muscles to scream in agony from tossing so much. He wanted to feel the heft of the ball caress his palms, the ball being the one thing he could really control.

That’s what he wanted, to be the control tower of the team, to toss and toss and toss and toss, to improve and to have even better ball control than before. Sure, he had been called a prodigy by his peers, but he always felt like there was more for him to enhance. There was a gap between him and the golden palms of perfection, and he wanted nothing more than to close it as much as possible. Others coined him the name “King” for this obsession –and it more than pissed him off when he heard people actually whisper the nickname  between each other— but he didn’t care about anyone else.

He couldn’t make up for others’ incompetence.

Still, the coach told him to suffer through a couple days of doing the _complete_ opposite of that, but if he didn’t follow his directions, he wouldn’t be able to play. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make, to say the least.

The sun was setting when Kageyama and the rest of the team left the school’s gym, and as everyone parted ways, the raven suddenly just stopped in his tracks. “What the hell does someone do on a break?” Kageyama ended up asking himself out loud. This was weird, since the setter never usually took breaks ever, except for on rest days, but as of lately he skipped those and just ran off to the gym to practice anyway. If he was at home, he’d end up being able to think about the wrong things, and that was a path he didn’t feel quite comfortable taking.

So maybe… a walk? Yeah, that sounded like something people did in their spare time.

With that, the raven started moving again, taking a few steps forward before he paused again, wondering where the hell he was supposed to _go?_ What, was he supposed to just walk and find himself somewhere? Was that the plan? The raven just shook his head and started moving again.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” he whispered to himself as he stuffed his fists into his coat pockets, following the sidewalk. He couldn’t even try to relax without overanalyzing it.

But that was just how he worked: calculations, analyses, _that_ was how he could pinpoint where the volleyball was going to go. Every factor that he could think of just added to the equation of what he was supposed to do. What about _off_ the court?

_What do I do then?_

 

* * *

 

Kageyama’s eventual plan was to try and not make one at all: that is, he did his best to just try and not think, just move. Use the instincts that he had during games, focus on nothing yet everything—no, cut the “everything” part. The goal was to just keep moving. And that he actually ended up doing, except for the common fleeting thoughts like, _My nose is cold_ , _What’s the best kind of toss?_ , _I’m hungry_. However, his steps didn’t bring him to any kind of restaurant, rather a familiar place of business.

The Flower Shop.

He stood there in the evening afternoon, looking up at the sign and the doors. The raven had never noticed it before, but the place actually had a name. “Incredible Blossoms Flower Shop” was painted brightly above the stores on a sign, laced with trails of ivy and other flowers that Kageyama had no idea what they were called. Well, that wasn’t all too important, since the real matter of question was _what the actual hell was he doing here?_

This was where _Hinata_ of all people worked, couldn’t he have gone somewhere else maybe? The setter couldn’t help but internally grimace as he remembered the last time they talked—rather _shouted_ would be the better term. Kageyama couldn’t help but feel a little guilty for screaming at him so much, but he should have minded his own business! He didn’t have the right to butt in! The more and more he dwelled on it, the darker his expression came until he found himself practically glaring at the door.

And said door suddenly swung open, smacking Kageyama right in the nose.

“Gyaugh!” the setter hissed, stumbling back as he cupped his throbbing nose.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, I—!” a familiar voice sputtered out to him, then stopped. “Kageyama?”

Hinata’s worried expression peered out from behind the door, out of his uniform with his bag slung over his shoulder. A twinkle of something sparkled in those sunset hues, though, something like ire or maybe just annoyance. Either way, actually seeing Hinata’s stupid face pissed Kageyama off. “Oi, watch where you’re going, dumbass! If you opened that door any harder, you could have broken my nose!”

“S-Sorry! Are you okay?” Hinata asked, moving to peer up.

“You just hit me with a fucking _door_!” Kageyama hissed, using his free hand to fist those goddamn annoying tangerine curls on his head roughly. “What do you think?!”

“Ow! _Ouch!_ ” Hinata whined, both hands immediately flying up to tug on Kageyama’s wrist. “I said I was sorry! O-Ow, Jesus, let go of me!” Fingers flailed sporadically, raking up and down the setter’s arm before he _finally_ let go of him. Of course, the redheaded idiot had to show up right then, right when he was just thinking about that stupid fight, too. Amidst in his own thoughts, Hinata was petting down his hair, trying to ease his throbbing scalp. “Jeeze,” he sighed before letting his arms fall to his sides and his gaze flickered up to meet Kageyama’s eyes with a frown. “So what are you doing here? Aren’t you busy making up with your boyfriend?”

The raven was silent for a moment, debating on fisting that damned hair of his again –since it seemed like the only way to get him to shut up. Darkness swirled in his eyes as his lips glowered, giving the florist a warning look.  “I’m enjoying the day, dumbass. What does it look like?” Kageyama answered, practically lying through his teeth.

“I feel like the only thing that you enjoy is making me miserable,” Hinata grumbled under his breath, and when Kageyama’s hand shot out to grab his hair again, the florist let out a high-pitched, “ _Aiyeeee!_ ” and ducked, repeatedly thanks to the setter’s relentless attempts to nab him. However, amidst the weird dodge-tango of theirs, the door opened again to reveal a silver-haired male, probably only a couple years older than them.

“Hey, Hinata, the manager is going to get mad that you’re causing so much noise out here,” another florist warned with an apologetic smile, causing the pair to freeze. Kageyama’s hand fell again to his side while Hinata laughed out his own short apology. “Sorry about that, Suga-san,” he said with an uneasy grin, “We’ll go. C’mon, Kageyama, let’s start walking.”

With that, Hinata turned and pushed his hand on the setter’s back, shoving him forward and quickly out of the way of the flower shop, leaving the one called Suga alone at the door, but his grin had changed. What—was he amused? Kageyama clicked his tongue as he shoved Hinata off, crossing his arms soon after. “Way to go, stupid,” he grunted, “You got us scolded.”

“It was your fault for picking a fight with me!” Hinata shot back immediately, but then caught himself. What was the point of yelling so much? Nothing good was going to come out of it anyway, so why just let it drag on like this? A defeated breath escaped Hinata’s lips, forming into a faint white cloud before fading away. “Look- I’m sorry,” Hinata started, stuffing one hand in his pocket as the other curled around the strap of his bag, “About the other day… Oh- and about the door too. But like, I probably shouldn’t have been butting in so much, since maybe that was a little weird of me.”

At his words, Kageyama turned his head to look down at him, and a feeling of guilt knotted in his stomach. Hinata’s face painted dejection, like a puppy that knew it messed up, and the setter could practically see dog ears drooping on his head. It made him raise an eyebrow.

“What’s with _that_ face?” Kageyama questioned, causing the redhead to glance up as they walked. At first, he hesitated, but he managed to get what he needed to say off his chest. “It’s not like you actually tried to do anything wrong.” He wanted to add more to that, but Hinata jumped in rather quickly to defend himself.

“I just don’t _get_ it, though,” the redhead responded, brow crumpling as he spoke, “I don’t understand why you would want to make up with that guy though. He hurt you really bad, didn’t he? I wouldn’t want someone like that around me anymore after cheating on you. Kuroo said love makes you do stupid things, and I guess that’s one of them.”

Kageyama could acknowledge that Hinata had a point, but the scar on his heart hadn’t healed quite yet, thus hearing it out loud still caused his chest to ache and his eyebrow to twitch. “That’s what you did wrong. Right there.”

“What?”

“You’re insensitive, dumbass,” Kageyama answered bluntly, but then let out an annoyed groan, “Have you never been heartbroken before?”

“Nope,” Hinata replied casually, shaking his head. However, he turned his head away, pursing his lips as he muttered, “It’s not like you know much about sensitivity either.”

Kageyama must have heard him, since right after the words fell from his lips there was a quick slap to the back of his head. Other than that, the taller male didn’t say much for a short while.

“It… just really sucks,” he started after a moment, before his gaze fell down to the sidewalk beneath them, “You never want to be there. And when you just talk about it like it’s such an easy thing… it really pisses me off.” After that, Hinata was quiet for a while, and Kageyama just kept watching the ground. It took him a moment to realize that the redhead had just been watching him this whole time, and when their eyes met, Kageyama’s face crumpled into an annoyed glare. “What the hell are you looking at?” the setter snarled, but no trace of fear flashed in Hinata’s eyes.

“You really did love him a lot, didn’t you?” he asked calmly, his feet coming to a stop. Kageyama followed suit and just looked down at the florist, trying his best to read his face; but something equivalent to a type of innocence masked what he was thinking. “It kind of makes me jealous, in a way,” Hinata continued, only causing Kageyama to frown.

“Jealous?”

“Just a little,” the redhead explained as he readjusted the bag on his shoulder, “I mean, not the painful parts, but I just wonder what it’s like to care about someone that much… just a thought, I guess.”

The setter just gazed at Hinata with eyes that were slightly wider than before, not sure what the hell to make of him. Was he making fun of his feelings, or was he actually serious? If anything, he concluded that he couldn’t really understand this guy at all. How could he have no romantic experience _whatsoever_? How completely _dense_ did this guy have to be to not understand what it’s like at all?

Weird. Definitely weird.

Hinata’s attention had wandered in the awkward silence that thickened the air between them –to where, who knew?– but as soon as Kageyama spoke, Hinata’s curly head popped right back up again.

“Sorry.”

“Eh? For what?”

The setter let out a breath as he raked a hand through his hair, navy moons glancing away. “For throwing you out of the apartment. I… panicked. Everything was all kind of like…” Kageyama chewed on his lip, practically feeling his pride peel off him like old paint off a wall as he tried to figure out the right words to say. “To put it in your terms… It’s like my head went _‘Gwaaaaah!’_ or something.” He even flailed his hands around his head for good measure, but either way Hinata perked up slightly. “…and I overreacted I guess. So… sorry.”

He was expecting some big outburst from the ginger, pointing out that Kageyama was wrong too, but as usual, Hinata was full of surprises. Instead of accepting the apology like a normal human being, Hinata sprung forward and dug into his bag before thrusting out a mass of white into Kageyama’s face.

“Volleyball!” Hinata insisted, holding out the ball, “We should play volleyball again, Kageyama!”

The setter’s eyes blew wide, and he even blinked once or twice at the sudden offer. This guy –no, he was more like a _kid_ if anything- was definitely an odd case. Maybe he got hit in the head one too many times a while back, but it didn’t stop Kageyama’s hands from reaching out and snatching the thing from him. Those ginger curls jumped high in the air, probably just as much as Hinata could from excitement.

If this was their way of making up, then Kageyama would be willing to accept that.

Amidst Kageyama’s short train of thought, Hinata suddenly darted forward, nabbing the volleyball from the raven’s hands with a triumphant laugh. “I’ll beat you to the train station!” he called out behind him, swiveling through the crowd like a leaf blowing through the forest. In a way, it was oddly graceful, but no matter if he was the epitome of nimbleness or as klutzy as a ballerina with two left feet, Kageyama felt his competitive edge spurn. A slight grin cracked on his lip as he darted after the ginger, eager to catch up.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the night was spent as it was before, playing volleyball until the later hours of the evening. It didn’t matter how many times he had seen it, but Kageyama was still amazed at how high this kid would jump to reach the ball. He couldn’t help but think that Hinata had had surgery on his legs to insert springs into them or something, there was no way he could keep jumping that high for the three or so hours that they spent volleying the ball back and forth. And as did he the last time they played, Hinata left Kageyama breathless by the end of it. Sweat slicked his raven bangs to his forehead, turning them into an inky black color in the lamp light. His clothes stuck to him too, but he didn’t mind it so much.

His heart was _pounding;_ his mind was on edge; everything about him was ready to dive toward wherever Hinata would spike the ball. It was like a fire that left his muscles burning and his body radiating heat, but _damn_ he wanted more. However, both he and Hinata were hunched over, sweating palms pressing on their knees as they panted, both being pushed to their limits. Other than their exhausted breaths, they were silent for a few moments, before Hinata stood erect, a laugh bellowing out of him.

“What’s so funny?” Kageyama questioned, slowly standing up, eyebrow raised.

“N-Nothing, nothing!” the florist giggled, his cheeks flushed from the exertion and laughter. “It’s just—it feels really good to play with someone again!” As his chuckles dimmed down, he fanned himself with the collar of his shirt, his smile remaining plastered on his face. It was bright— _seriously_ bright, bright enough that Kageyama had to squint to keep his eyes on him. Or was it that he was standing in front of a lamp post? The setter wiped his forehead on his shirt and stood up straight as well.

“It’s been so long since I’ve played this hard,” Hinata sighed light-heartedly, “It’s just really refreshing you know? We were a great team back in the day, and I almost got scouted too.”

“…Almost?” Kageyama replied, eyeing him in suspicion. At the question, the raven swore he saw something unsettling flicker in Hinata’s eyes as they glanced away for a second.

Then he laughed again.

“It’s kind of a long story,” Hinata answered him, his grin looking as though it was _trying_ to be bright. “You see—“

The ginger was suddenly cut off by a muffled ringing noise coming from their pile of things –some sort of 8-bit pop song or something- and Hinata’s expression returned to its normal, curious state from whatever that mixed expression was before. Without hesitation, he perused through his bag to answer his phone.

“Hello?” he said, pursing his lips in confusion. Whoever it was, Kageyama couldn’t hear them since he was too far away.

“I won’t be late, I sweaaaaar,” Hinata groaned, half-defeated and half-annoyed. _Does he have a date to go on or something?_ Kageyama thought, feeling disgruntled. Who in their right mind would blow off a date for something like—wait a minute, Hinata didn’t have any romantic experience at all, that shouldn’t be it. “That’s my favorite!” the ginger’s excited chirp broke through the setter’s train of thought. “Yeah, I’ll be home soon. See you then, Kenma!” With that, the smaller male ended the call and tucked his phone back into his bag.

“What did he want?” Kageyama asked as he leaned down to pick up his coat and brushed the grass off.

With a quick zip of his bag, Hinata closed it up and bounced right back up again, slinging the thing over his shoulder with his coat in his arm. “He said he’s making dinner, so I better get home before he scolds me for being out too late. What is he, my mom?” he said, snickering at his own joke. However, to Kageyama, the words seemed to come out of Hinata’s mouth a little too quickly for his liking. Before he could even ask, the ginger spoke up.

“I gotta head home, so I’ll see you next time, kay?”

_Next time?_ “Oi, what about that story of yours, dumbass?” he called, since the young florist had already started making his trek across the park.

“What? I can’t hear you, I’m too far away!” Hinata half-yelled, half-laughed, his steps growing faster.

“ _YOU’RE LITERALLY TWELVE FEET AWAY, IDIOT!_ ”

Kageyama’s bark was only answered by Hinata’s snorting laugh, which only made the setter’s temper sizzle. What was his _problem_ , anyway? The setter couldn’t help but wonder what Hinata’s story was about as he slid into his coat (the heat from playing volleyball was slowly being replaced by the cold November wind, so he was freezing!). Hinata was obviously passionate about volleyball, maybe even as much as _he_ was, but Kageyama couldn’t peg a good reason as to why he didn’t get scouted. He said “almost” too, so maybe he just barely didn’t make the cut? Or was it a stupid mistake at the wrong time? The setter didn’t know, and he didn’t know why this was bugging him so much either, so he just started his shuffle back to his apartment complex.

 

* * *

 

With an exhausted sigh, Kageyama flung himself to his bed, not even caring that his hair was still matted down with shower water. He could still feel the steam swirling up off his skin, since he loved his showers almost scalding hot. It was nice to take a relaxing shower every now and then. The only thought that nagged his mind throughout was why Hinata made such a distasteful face earlier. Thinking back on it, Hinata looked sort of troubled, which was really odd considering how stupidly happy he always looked. _That face doesn’t fit you,_ Kageyama thought, flipping over on his back.

Another thing that was strange was having a room to himself. It had been a few weeks, but he _still_ wasn’t quite used to living on his own like this. His parents helped him out, but they couldn’t fill the empty space. He knew what is was from, like a ghost haunting the walls, but he refused to think about it. Despite that creeping feeling, however, he couldn’t deny that he was feeling _mildly_ better than he had been for the past few days. Maybe it was the relaxing shower that put his mind at ease, but regardless of what helped him, he was… okay. Not wonder, not despair-ridden, just… okay.

Was “okay” enough to get back on the court?

He could feel it in his bones, something in his bones was just _itching_ to get back to the gym at the university, to toss and feel the heft of the volleyball kissing his fingertips. Something sparked within him today, a spark he hadn’t felt in a while. Sure, he _loved_ volleyball, but he played it so much that he was, in a sense, _used_ to loving volleyball, but playing with Hinata –so fast-paced and so intensely- stirred something up in him.

This was what his coach was talking about, right?

The raven leaned over to the nightstand, reaching out for his phone. _I’ll call him tomorrow, ask if I can come back,_ he thought to himself, scrolling through his contacts. He wasn’t sure if he had the coach’s number or not, so it was good to double-check before tomorrow. _It’d suck to walk all the way there to only be kicked out again_. He didn’t have many personal contacts, that’s for sure, just his parents and a few friends, both from the university and high school, and even then there weren’t that many.

That’s the reason why the name _Hinata Shouyou_ definitely stood out to him.

“What the _hell?!_ ” he gasped aloud. “What’s he doing in my phone!?” Kageyama sat upright, glaring at those characters that had somehow appeared in his contact list. He had never asked for Hinata’s number, there was no way in hell that he did it. Maybe the idiot had hacked his phone and put his own number in there as some weird prank? “No way,” Kageyama scoffed aloud, “There’s no way in hell that he’d be smart enough to do that.” Well… he never had a passcode set on his phone, so it wasn’t like it took much skill anyway.

Who cares if it was past midnight? He had to call to get to the bottom of this!

Perturbed beyond belief, the setter smashed the call button and pressed his phone to his ear. It rang, and rang, but he didn’t answer. _He’s probably asleep_ , Kageyama thought, but just for good measure, he tried again anyway.

_Riiiiing….._

_Riiiiing….._

“….hello?”

“How the hell did you get into my phone?!” Kageyama snapped as soon as heard the groggy voice, which he immediately recognized as Hinata.

“What the hell?” Hinata groaned confusedly. There was some shuffling heard in the background; he was probably sitting upright. A yawn rippled from the receiver, only pestering Kageyama further. “Kageyama, is that you? How’d you get my number?”

“You hacked my phone, dumbass!” Kageyama shot back, “How about you explain that to me!”

“What?” Hinata replied, sounding more and more awake, “What do you mean that I hacked your phone? I haven’t even touched it! And why would I give you my number like that, that’s weird!”

“You’re weird!”

“ _I’m_ weird?!” Hinata retorted, “ _You’re_ the one calling me in the middle of the night! Why don’t you act like a normal person and call me in the morning? And shouldn’t you be in bed already?”

“Tch,” Kageyama scoffed, “Because your name was in my phone, dumbass! And I was just about to, until you showed up in my contacts!”

“Well you should--!” Hinata started, but he was cut off by someone’s voice in the background. Kageyama could only guess it be Kuroo or Kenma, but whoever it was, it was pretty distant. There were some shuffling sounds, and the florist’s voice lowered to an angry whisper. “Well you should shut up, you’re gonna wake your neighbors up for yelling so much!”

“You just did, didn’t you?” Kageyama asked bluntly.

“Shut up!” Hinata groaned quietly.

And then, silence.

The pause between them was more than just a little awkward, since both ends were rather confused at how they got here in the first place. If Hinata didn’t do it, and Kageyama didn’t do it, who put Hinata’s name in the setter’s phone? And of all numbers, why Hinata’s anyway? “…Well, I guess I’ll just save your number now, no use in deleting it I guess,” Hinata mumbled on the other end of the line, causing Kageyama’s shoulders to lower somewhat. At least the awkward silence had receded.

“I just wanna know who the hell hacked my phone,” Kageyama grumbled as he flopped down on his side, letting his free ear sink into his pillow.

“Same here, seriously!” Hinata said, and there was more shuffling; he probably laid back down. “Who would do that?”

“I dunno.”

“I was framed, I swear!” Hinata cried, causing the setter to roll his eyes.

“Way to go, dumbass.”

The conversation sort of trailed on that sort of bickering for a little while more, but neither of them could get anywhere. It was like the two were running in circles, going from just trying to figure out who it was until one of them said something smart, causing a short argument; then the cycle would begin again. In a moment where their squabbling had subsided, Hinata let out a yawn.

“…well, whoever it was, I’m a little greatful,” he said, his flipping over in his bead making a shuffling sound.

“Why’s that? It’s weird.”

“Yeah, I know,” the ginger replied, “but I forgot to ask you something earlier, and I wasn’t sure when I’d see you then, so the time is now, huh?” Those words twisted Kageyama’s face into a confused scowl, and he flipped onto his back, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

“What?”

“On Saturday, some of my friends from highschool and some guys in the neighborhood are getting together to play volleyball, and I was wondering if you want to play?” Hinata’s voice brightened through the phone. If he could get excited about anything, it was volleyball. “They’re a bunch of nice guys, really! I mean, they can get a little loud… but they’re all really cool, and they’re good at volleyball, so it’s not like it’ll be a lousy game or anything. And the losing team buys dinner, too, since we always go out to eat after! Wanna come?”

Kageyama frowned as Hinata rambled on about this apparent get-together, since he wouldn’t know any of these people, but they all loved volleyball, right? They had to be at least _decent_ human beings. That, and Hinata said that they weren’t terrible. Still, they were amateurs, so it wouldn’t be a very fun victory.

“I swear, I’ll beat you!” Hinata added pompously, making Kageyama’s eyes sharpen. “I’m gonna be better than Mr. Pro-Setter—“

“You’re on.”

The answer was almost immediate, enough to shut Hinata up real quick. At first there was only the white noise of phone silence, but then Kageyama heard a breath get sucked in. Hell, the setter could practically see Hinata’s hair fluff up in excitement on the other end. “Seriously? You’ll come? Really?”

“Yeah,” Kageyama answered flatly, although he couldn’t help but feel a little pumped as well. “I’ll show you how well I can really play, dumbass.”

“Bring it!” Hinata snorted, “Meet me in front of my apartment complex, and you better bring your ‘real’ skills!”

“You sound like a bigger dumbass than usual,” Kageyama groaned in annoyance before he glanced at the time on his phone. “Go to bed, stupid! You probably have to work or something, right? It’s 2 in the goddamn morning!”

“H-huh?” Hinata breathed in awe, “Really? Time flies, huh?”

“Go the fuck to sleep!”

“Fiiiiiiiine,” the ginger drawled, adding a yawn for good measure. Suddenly, he paused, and that weird awkwardness from before appeared again, and Kageyama just laid in his bed, sinking uncomfortably in it. One of them needed to come up with something to say, or else the setter would drown in the awkward silence.

“…hey, Kageyama?” Hinata finally spoke up. He sounded hesitant, but he spoke up.

“Hm?”

“Uh… thanks for playing volleyball with me,” the ginger muttered, sounding earnestly brighter with each word. “It’s a lot of fun, so I’m really excited to play a real match with you!”

Kageyama laid there in silence, the awkward air evaporating, yet it was replaced with a new kind of odd. What brought this sudden sentimental attitude up? He didn’t even know that Hinata could say something that wasn’t entirely stupid. Usually the setter scared people away with his bitterness if anything, so it was rather unusual for him to hear this sort of thing. More importantly, he wasn’t sure how to deal with it other than blurting out a quiet, “Dumbass.”

“Okay, now I’m seriously gonna go to bed so that I can _not_ mess up my sleep schedule,” Hinata said. “Night, weirdo.”

The setter pulled the phone away from his ear, watching the call time flash until it disappeared. Two hours and thirteen minutes, that’s what it said. How did the time fly by so fast? Dropping the phone on his chest, Kageyama allowed the gentle silence of the night sink in, and he just sat there wondering what exactly he had just signed up for.


End file.
